Recently, the Indian Prime Minister while addressing the convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati through video conferencing, called upon the institute to play its strong role in making India’s Act East Policy more result oriented. The Prime Minister has said that as part of the Act East Policy, education is going to play an important role in strengthening relations between India and South East Asian countries. This region of the Northeast is also the center of India’s Act East Policy. This region is also the main gateway for India’s relation with South East Asia. Culture, trade, mutual contact and potential have been the mainstay of relations with these countries and now education is also going to be another new medium.
It is noteworthy that Assam Government has constituted the Act East Policy Department a few years ago and Assam is the first state in India to do so. Assam has an important role in terms of internal security and border security of North East India, which has been identified at the level of foreign policy of India. In recent times, the way the positive role of states has been preferred in foreign policy is also going to boost the morale of the states and in this way paradiplomacy (the role of states in the conduct of foreign policy) also started gaining importance. is. Increasing the role of Indian states with neighboring countries with international borders in foreign policy can lead to significant results.
Act East Policy: India’s Act East Policy focuses on the extended neighbors of the Asia Pacific region and the Indo-Pacific region, which India has now come to see as an extended neighborhood. This policy was originally launched as an economic initiative, which encompasses political, strategic and cultural dimensions, along with the establishment of institutional mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation. India has improved its relations of strategic partnership with Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), Australia, Singapore and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under this Act East Policy and all countries in the Asia Pacific region Have established close relationships with. In addition, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia Summit (EAS) as well as India Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) ), Is also actively working to achieve the objectives of the Act East Policy at regional fora such as the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and the Indian Ocean Perimeter Association (IORA). India-ASEAN cooperation has been emphasized in India’s domestic agenda on infrastructure, manufacturing, trade, skills, urban renewal, smart city, Make in India and other aspects in the Act East Policy.
Objectives of India’s Act East Policy: India’s Act East Policy aims to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region through strong alliances at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels, as well as developing strategic ties. This will increase the connectivity of neighboring countries with the states of North-Eastern region of India including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam. North East India has been given priority in India’s Act East Policy. This is the reason that India has been successful in participating in several projects in North East India, along with ASEAN countries, Japan, Bhutan and Bangladesh for its security and development. The Act East Policy serves as a meeting point between North East India and ASEAN regions including Arunachal Pradesh. Various schemes at the bilateral and regional levels include trade, culture, people-to-people contact and continuous efforts to develop and strengthen the connectivity of the North-Eastern states with the ASEAN regions through basic infrastructure such as roads, communication etc. Some of the major projects include Kaladan Multi-Model Transit Transport Project, Indo-Myanmar-Thailand Tripartite Highway Project, Re-Tidim Road Project, Seema Haat etc. The talk of making the Act East Policy an integral part of the Indo Pacific Vision has been done by the Indian Prime Minister.
Measures for Effective Implementation of India’s Act East Policy: The ASEAN-India Action Plan for the period 2016-20 was adopted in August 2015, with concrete initiatives and areas of cooperation with political security, economic and socio-cultural pillars. Identifies Due to its alliance with the Indo-Pacific Strategy of America and the Quad Security Group, India today is engaged in making the protection of ocean sovereignty an issue of global importance under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and this has resulted in Germany’s democratic countries of the Indian Pacific region. New Indo-Pacific Policy has been formulated to strengthen partnership with India, which has been supported by India, Japan and ASEAN countries. Along with this, South Korea has also become a strategic partner of India’s Act East Policy.
In the year 2015, the Government of India made the Act East Policy an indispensable part of India’s foreign policy. India now attaches highest importance to the security landscape of the Asia Pacific region in strategic, political negotiations with the superpowers. The main reason behind this is also that today India is keen to reap the benefits of Blue Economy or Ocean economy. In such a situation, India will not be able to take advantage of the ocean until freedom of navigation in the oceans and safety of ocean trade routes is taken care of. In this sequence, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan in 2014, the two countries agreed that they will have a special strategic and global partnership-focused relationship. After this, India identified Japan as an indispensable part of the policy which was introduced by the Indian Prime Minister in 2015, and then in 2015, the two countries – Japan India Vision 2025 Special Strategic and Global Partnership – Announced whose main objective is to work for peace and prosperity in the Indian Pacific region and the world. In 2016, the Japanese Prime Minister announced that a new era of India-Japan relations had begun. Both the common and personal interests of the two countries are hidden behind these gradual efforts to strengthen mutual relations. The biggest reason for this is the need to counterbalance China who wants to make Asia a polar economy.
Extension of maritime relations to Japan and Russia: Given India’s strong naval power, it is natural for Japan to have a tendency towards India. Today, through joint naval, military and air force exercises with countries around the world, India has succeeded in convincing the superpowers that India’s role in maritime security and maritime trade cannot be ignored. This is evidence of the recent opening of an alternative sea trade route in the South China Sea by Russia with India. India, as a large regional Asian country, has some ability to withstand all-round challenges in the world politics of America and the power emptiness resulting from it. Japan feels so and it is important that Japan has so far been able to trust matters of strategic importance only to countries like the US and Australia.
India is also a very reliable friend for her. Japan is also confident that India can play the role of a security provider in South East Asia, and in fact India supported the Philippines in the dispute between the Philippines and China, emphasizing developmental activities in Myanmar, talking about Vietnam’s rights. We have also proved this by giving In 2012, Japan participated in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium for the first time and became more sensitive to the security of the Indian Ocean. After this, the defense relations between India, Japan, Australia and America were boosted through the joint naval exercise of Malabar. Japan is the only foreign power that has received approval to run infrastructure development projects in the sensitive North Eastern region of India. For this, in 2017, India and Japan formed the Act East Forum, whose main objective is to promote investment by Japan for infrastructure development in the North East Indian states. India and Japan decided in 2019 to launch the Asia Africa Growth Corridor, an ambitious maritime interconnection initiative between India and Japan, in response to China’s policy of fighting the pearls.
Under its Act East Policy, India is a country advocating freedom and security of the world’s most important sea trade routes. If the ocean is safe, prosperity and stability is safe, India speaks of this freedom of ocean navigation. Apart from this, India put the question of safety of maritime trade routes in the fourth edition of the Indian Ocean Conference held in Maldives on September 3-4. Major countries like India, Sri Lanka, Singapore registered their participation in this session. In a further step to the question of maritime security and independence, India and Russia have recently agreed to launch a new Indo-Pacific Maritime Route that will extend from Russia’s Far East port city Vladivostok to Chennai. Thus, the Act East Policy is an effective tool to address the commercial and strategic interests of India engaged in the Asia Pacific region, the Indian Pacific region.
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