Vietnam is central to India's Act East policy

As PM Modi said during his visit to Vietnam in 2014, the latter had been in the forefront of India’s engagement in the region.

- G. JAYACHANDRA REDDY

INDIA-ASEAN

Many dramatic paradigms of foreign policies of different countries have witnessed the collapse of the USSR and the end of Cold War. India has been one of the front runners of inducing its long pending reforms, specifically in foreign policy. India has announced its Look East Policy (LEP) in 1991 by the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Undoubtedly, India’s LEP remains the most effective foreign policy during the post-Cold War period. It involves intensive and continuous engagement with Southeast Asian countries in the field of connectivity, trade, culture, defence and people-to-peoplecontact at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels, in the first phase. It has been extended geographically up to Japan and New Zealand which includes East Asia and South Pacific as its second phase. The Narendra Modi government has upgraded the LEP as Act East Policy (AEP) in November 2014 which reflects the intension of intensifying India’s engagement in the region by its ‘action’ instead of ‘looking’. Of course, India has completed all the formalities (ASEAN Sectoral Partner, 1992; Dialogue Partner,1996; Summit Level Partner, 2002; and Strategic Partner, 2012) to emerge as one of the major players of the region.