With reference to “Look East Policy” of India, consider the following statements:
1. India wants to establish itself as an important regional player in East Asian affairs.
2. India wants to plug the vacuum created by the termination of the Cold War.
3. India wants to restore the historical and cultural ties with its neighbours in Southeast and East Asia.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(2011)
a) 1 only
b) 1 and 3 only
c) 3 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: B
India’s Look East policy is an effort to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia to bolster its standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People’s Republic of China. Initiated in 1991, it marked a strategic shift in India’s perspective of the world.
It was developed and enacted during the government of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao (1991–1996) and rigorously pursued by the successive administrations of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998–2004) and Manmohan Singh (2004–2014).
The success of Look East policy enthused the Mandarins of South-Block to develop the policy into more action oriented, project and outcome based policy.
After a couple of decades, India’s Act-East Policy, which was announced in 2014 by the Prime minister Narendra Modi’s administration, became a successor to the Look-East Policy.
