Introduction

Abstract

India’s outreach and ties with Southeast Asia or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have undergone a substantial change. With the ancient trade and religious-cultural linkages to the enhanced economic cooperation in the 1990s to today’s strategic partnership, the region became an essential and indispensable component of India’s foreign policy outreach. The traditional linkages became the structural approach with Look East Policy (LEP) in 1991 and later the LEP became more inclusive with a modification to the Act East Policy (AEP) by accommodation of not only security and defence components in relations with the Southeast neighbours but also going beyond the Strait of Malacca, to the West Pacific. Conversely, the ASEAN or Southeast Asia’s security, political and economic environment too is witnessing significant changes with China’s rise and its aggressive posture in disputes like the South China Sea (SCS) and East China Sea (ECS) coupled with its extensive developmental projects in the region which is in a sense an emerging geopolitical construct of “Indo-Pacific.” In this context, the ASEAN attempts to ensure stability and peace in the region through its “omni-enmeshment” collective strategy, even under misgiving with China’s influence and ties with some member states, by looking up to India to take up a bigger role in the regional security environment while preserving the centrality of the ASEAN intact. Equally, India seeks to create a platform for development that is mutually agreed by engaging like-minded countries in the pursuit of a rule-based order. This shared perception and mutual interest sustains the ASEAN–India partnership. This chapter focuses on India’s foreign policy at the turn of the millennium from the historical perspective, examines the forging of new partnerships since 1991 and the challenges the India–ASEAN relationship faces from the geopolitical competition in the Indo-Pacific.