Standing Less Tall

Context: Despite the best intentions of an Act East Policy, India’s standing and image in Southeast Asia have suffered.

Evolution of India’s approach towards South-East Asia:

• Look East Policy: Since 1992, when Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao enunciated a “Look East Policy”, India has engaged the region on all fronts — diplomatic and security, economic and people-to-people.
  • Robust relationship was built by the subsequent leader, leading to Lee Kuan Yew in 2007 to name China and India as the two engines of Asian economic growth.
• Act East Policy: Prime Minister Narendra Modi graduated Look East into an Act East policy in 2014.

Challenges to India’s Act East Policy: 3 developments are testing Indian diplomacy in the region -

• The rising profile of China: Combined with growing China-India tensions
  • Pride in China’s rise has gained ground among ethnic Chinese across the region, first triggered by China’s impressive staging of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
  • China’s response to the 2008-09 financial crisis and its growing economic role in the region added to its improved standing among both local business and civil society.
  • The narrative on the origins and handling of the pandemic has generated a pro-China sentiment among the region’s ethnic Chinese communities and can be seen in ASEAN’s accommodative approach towards China in recent times.
• India’s economic under-performance:
  • India’s economic slowdown and inward orientation, expressed through the decision to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, disappointed regional business.
• India’s approach towards its minorities: Especially Muslims and Christians, for if ethnic Chinese loyalties define one segment of Southeast Asian civil society, Islamic faith defines another large segment.
  • Growing concern about Hindu majoritarianism in India has impacted civil society attitudes in countries like Indonesia.
  • While India deployed the soft power of “Buddhist diplomacy”2014 but that too has not gained much traction as inter-religious tensions in the region grow.

Implications: This has weakened the business-to-business (B2B) and people-to-people (P2P) connect between India and ASEAN despite the best efforts to maintain good government-to-government (G2G) relations.

Way Forward: Indian diplomacy must take a fresh look at its Act East policy and the constraints being imposed on it by unsatisfactory economic performance and sectarian and communal politics at home.