India-ASEAN relations: Act East in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is where India’s Act East Policy lives or dies. Launched as Look East in 1991 after the Cold War and economic liberalisation, and upgraded to Act East in 2014, the policy made the ten-member ASEAN bloc, India’s fourth-largest trading partner at $122.67 billion in 2023-24, the centrepiece of India’s eastern engagement.

The relationship’s exam value is its completeness: trade and the RCEP exit, connectivity corridors from the Trilateral Highway to Kaladan, the first-ever ASEAN-India maritime exercise in May 2023, diaspora politics from Singapore to Jakarta, and the 2016 and 2017 PYQs that made this chapter a UPSC staple.

The doctrine: Look East to Act East

In the aftermath of the Cold War and the economic liberalisation of 1991, India launched the Look East Policy, reorienting toward the booming economies of Southeast Asia. The policy was upgraded to the Act East Policy in 2014, shifting from trade facilitation to strategic activism, connectivity projects, defence diplomacy and institutional leadership.

The regional operating principle is ASEAN Centrality, the leading and coordinating role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in shaping the Indo-Pacific’s regional architecture through the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ADMM-Plus. India endorses centrality because it keeps the region’s security order multipolar rather than Sino-centric.

The economics: $122 billion and the RCEP exit

ASEAN is India’s fourth-largest trading partner with $122.67 billion in trade in 2023-24, about 11 percent of India’s global trade, under the ASEAN-India FTA in force since 2010. But the deficit tells the harder story: it widened from $7.5 billion to $44 billion, driven by duty-free imports of electronics, palm oil and coal against modest Indian exports.

That deficit arithmetic is why India walked out of RCEP in 2019, judging that the pact would flood Indian markets without securing services access in return. ASEAN capitals read the exit as disappointment; New Delhi reads it as the cost of protecting farmers and industry. The tension between multilateral ambition and bilateral caution is the permanent frame of the economic relationship.

Connectivity: highways, rivers and corridors

Three projects carry the connectivity doctrine. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway promises an overland link from Moreh to Mae Sot. The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project connects Kolkata to Sittwe port and onward by river and road to Mizoram, bypassing the Siliguri corridor. The Mekong-India Economic Corridor and the six-member Mekong-Ganga Cooperation frame the sub-regional institutional layer.

Delivery lags the vision: the Trilateral Highway and Kaladan have both slipped on timelines, a standard mains point on the gap between Act East ambition and execution. The cultural layer moves faster, India’s restoration of Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm in Cambodia, Buddhist circuits, and the Ramayana’s local lives from Thailand’s Ramakien to the Javanese Ramayana.

Security: the maritime turn

Defence diplomacy has been Act East’s fastest-growing leg. The first ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise was held in May 2023; the inaugural ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Meeting took place in 2022; and the 2021-2025 Plan of Action deepened maritime cooperation. Bilaterally, Garuda Shakti with Indonesia, logistics understandings including Changi access, and the supply of ALH Dhruv helicopters to the Philippines show the model: training, exercises and affordable platforms.

The Indonesia anchor

Indonesia is the relationship’s bilateral core: diplomatic ties since 1949, President Soekarno as chief guest at India’s first Republic Day in 1950, and 75 years of ties marked in 2024. Trade reached $29.4 billion in 2023-24; the 2018 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership frames defence ties including the Samudra Shakti naval exercise; and Sabang port access at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, linked to the Andaman-Aceh corridor, gives India strategic depth at the Indo-Pacific’s busiest chokepoint. A 2024 local-currency settlement MoU deepens the financial layer.

The diaspora and the challenges

The 2017 PYQ on the Southeast Asian diaspora rewards specifics: economic contributions from Tata Group employment to philanthropy, cultural transmission through the Ramayana traditions, and political representation such as Singapore’s S. Jayakumar. But four challenges qualify the story: the widening trade deficit, connectivity projects slipping on timelines, the tendency to prefer bilateral deals over ASEAN-wide frameworks, and China’s BRI influence pulling some ASEAN capitals into Beijing’s orbit.

What examiners keep asking

• The 2016 PYQ: economic and strategic dimensions of Look East/Act East in the post-Cold War era.
• The 2017 PYQ: the role of the Indian diaspora in Southeast Asia (economic, cultural, political).
• ASEAN Centrality verbatim, plus the EAS/ARF/ADMM-Plus alphabet.
• The RCEP exit explained through the deficit ($7.5B to $44B).
• Connectivity specifics: Trilateral Highway, Kaladan, Sabang, and the execution-gap critique.

Key Terms

• Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is the 2018 upgrade of India-Indonesia ties. It frames defence, maritime and economic cooperation with ASEAN’s largest member.
• Act East Policy: The Act East Policy is India’s 2014 upgrade of the 1991 Look East Policy. It shifted eastern engagement from trade facilitation to strategic activism, connectivity and defence diplomacy.
• Mekong-Ganga Cooperation: The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation is the six-member sub-regional forum of India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. It is Act East’s institutional layer.
• Trilateral Highway: The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway promises an overland link from Moreh to Mae Sot. Its delays are the standard example of Act East’s execution gap.
• ASEAN Centrality: ASEAN Centrality refers to the leading and coordinating role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in shaping the regional architecture of the Indo-Pacific, via the EAS, ARF and ADMM-Plus.
• Kaladan project: The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project connects Kolkata to Sittwe port and onward to Mizoram. It bypasses the Siliguri corridor for Northeast access.
• Garuda Shakti: Garuda Shakti is the India-Indonesia bilateral army exercise. It anchors the defence leg of the 2018 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
• Trade deficit: The trade deficit is the gap when imports exceed exports. India’s ASEAN deficit widened from $7.5B to $44B, the arithmetic behind the RCEP exit.
• Sabang port: Sabang is the Indonesian port at the mouth of the Malacca Strait where India has access. Linked to the Andaman-Aceh corridor, it gives India strategic depth at the chokepoint.
• ALH Dhruv: The ALH Dhruv is India’s advanced light helicopter supplied to the Philippines. It is the showcase of India’s affordable-platform defence exports to ASEAN.
• ADMM-Plus: The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus is the region’s defence multilateral. India uses it to institutionalise its security role in Southeast Asia.
• RCEP: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is the 15-member Asian trade pact India exited in 2019. New Delhi judged it would widen the deficit without securing services access.

Practice questions