The Evolution of India-ASEAN Relations

This paper traces the evolution of India's relations with Southeast Asia from 1947 to the present. It looks at three distinct phases of this relationship, and explains the motivations behind and manifestations of India's relations with the Southeast Asian region in each of these phases. In the 1950s and early 1960s, many Southeast Asian states, spurred by anti-imperialist sentiments and harboring national aspirations, looked to India as a natural leader in post-colonial Asia, and later as a model of independence from superpower politics through its commitment to a strategy of nonalignment. This relationship cooled in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, during which India's policy towards Southeast Asia, derived from the dictates of regional geopolitics in South Asia and the Cold War regime, came to be described as one of "benign neglect." The third phase began in the 1990s, following the end of the Cold War and the onset of India's liberalization effort, and saw India's renewed engagement with Southeast Asia through its new Look East Policy. An increasing convergence of interests, both on economic and security issues, now forms the basis of a stable relationship between India and Southeast Asia.