India To Southeast Asia After The Cold War Policy Analysis

When the Cold War came to an end, India started to adjust its policy towards theSoutheast Asian region under the circumstance that India was driven to adopt ‘LookEast Policy’ to develop economic relationship with ASEAN countries by its fragiledomestic economic situation. With a decade of development, India’s comprehensivepower, including economic and technological power has strengthened and theawareness of major power has risen up. As a result, a characteristic of positioningitself as a major power has emerged from the diplomacy of India. Though thegeo-political pattern of South Asia provides great advantage for India, itsimultaneously confines India to extend its influence to the areas beyond South Asiaregion. India must ensure the free navigation and security of key maritime areas in theSoutheast Asian region in order to protect its maritime sea lanes for transportingoversea petroleum, the demand for which has greatly increased with the economicdevelopment of India. Moreover, it provided a good opportunity for India to adjust itspolicy towards Southeast Asian countries that the political situation of ASEAN hasbecome stable after its expansion. Finally India started to implement the policy of‘comprehensive cooperation partnership’ towards Southeast Asian countries based ontheir good diplomatic relationship in1990s. India started to cooperate with SoutheastAsian countries in the aspects of economy, politics and defence, so as to strengthenthe existence of India in the region.