India’s Look East Policy And India-ASEAN Relations Under A Perspective Of The Structural Power Theory

India was facing an intertwined dilemma which included generally cold relationswith its neighbors as well as domestic economic stuck, because of this South Asianpower s foreign policy which focused on the alliance with the Soviet Union while thelatter collapsed in1991. The Rao P. V. Narasimha administration then promulgated aso-called the Look East Policy in1991in order to help India obtain diplomatic andeconomic supports from rich ASEAN nations by developing a strong relations withthese economic prosperous entities. Guided by the Look East Policy, which hasbeen under operation for more than20years, the relation between India and theASEAN has survived the impact of Asian financial crisis in1997and benefited fromthe mutual or multilateral cooperation. India has not only established an institutionalframework containing mutual trade, financial, and regional security cooperation withthe ASEAN, but also been trying to strengthen its economic ties with economicprosperous nations in the Northeast Asia. The Look East Policy, according to SusanStrange s theory of structural power, has been implemented in acquiring regionalinfluences created by the four different structural powers which include regionalsecurity, production, finance, and knowledge in the Southeast Asia and further in theAsian-Pacific. The ASEAN, as an external development target simultaneously aimedby both China and India, has seen an overlapping expansion of influences from itsclose neighbors. India s expanding influence in the Southeast Asia means not onlychallenges but also chances to China. In order to deal with this Look East move, theonly mighty choice of China seems to be seeking regional deeper cooperation andcommon interests, so as to create a win-win situation and promote bilateral friendlyrelations between these two Asian giants.