This book examines the role of China in driving and sustaining India’s post-Cold War engagement with Southeast Asia. In doing so, it provides a unique insight into the regional dimensions of the Sino-Indian relationship. India launched its Look East Policy in the early 1990s as part of a concerted effort to revive the importance of Southeast Asia in the country’s foreign policy agenda. This study assesses the role of the China factor – defined here as China’s regional role, which has been interpreted through the prism of the Sino-Indian relationship – in the inception and evolution of the policy. More specifically, it establishes the extent to which China has been raised as a priority in discourses of India’s Look East Policy and how this has varied over time from the origins of the policy through to the most recent phase of the renamed Act East Policy. Addressing the distinction between what policymakers signal in their official statements and their true or underlying motivations, the book alludes to the fact that government officials may not always reflect true intentions in their official statements, and it is often what is not said that may reveal more about their real motivations. This is particularly relevant in the context of the Sino-Indian relationship where diplomatic rhetoric often masks more competitive and confrontational aspects of the bilateral relationship. An important analysis of the interplay between India’s relations with Southeast Asia and China, this book will be of interest to academics, policymakers and students in the fields of International Relations, Asian Security, Southeast Asian politics, and in particular, Indian foreign policy, the Sino-Indian relationship, and India’s Look East/Act East Policy.

Geography has moulded Singapore's self-definition, much as it has shaped the contours of the rest of Southeast Asia, a region that lies south of China and east of India. Placed within overlapping Sinic and Indic zones, Singapore's "entrept" role has served both. Today, as China and India emerge simultaneously as rising powers, a port city is going beyond its trading role to engage them in political and security terms. This book combines diplomatic history and international relations theory to show how Singapore is facilitating China's and India's engagement of Southeast Asia.

Content India Security Building InThe New Century China And India: TheoriesOf Development India’s Security Policy India ASEAN Relations Perspectives On The RiseOf China Major Concerns In China’s ASEAN Policy China’s Efforts As A Responsible Power China In Postcold War Asia China’s New Security Concept And Asia Chinese Nationalism And Its Foreign Policy

This volume will explore the role of India and China in regional geopolitics, with a focus on Southeast Asia. It highlights some of the key events and turning points in the evolving equations since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first prime minister. In six chapters, it shows how Indias prominent position in devising the regional architecture in Asia was diluted after the Bandung era, especially after the Indo-China war in 1962. The author maintains that, relative to its earlier status as a major champion of Asian regionalism, India had become a political and diplomatic non-entity, if not a pariah, in Southeast Asia by the 1980s. While China emerged as the most important political entity in the region over the next three decades, India gradually made substantial inroads into the ASEAN scene, more so after its emergence as a 'rising' power in the post-Cold War era and economic reforms of 1991. 00This book revisits the question of contemporary Asian security from an Indian vantage point, posing critical questions about the future of regional leadership in Southeast Asia, and demonstrating how it depends as much on the India-China-Southeast Asia relationship as on China-US-Japan relations.

"The decline of the Soviet Union and poor economic growth in India forced India to make dramatic changes in its foreign policy and make a shift from non-alignment to engagement with developed nations in general and Southeast Asia in particular. India's Look East Policy was drafted in 1991 with an aim of building economic and diplomatic ties with Southeast Asian nations. It also served in enhancing India's growing strategic importance in the region, building military cooperation and enhance confident of Southeast Asian nations in India. The present Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi has further given impetus to engagement with Southeast Asian nations with the 'Act East' policy. This paper examines how India's Look East Policy has enhanced India's strategic engagement in Southeast Asia and its growing economic and strategic importance in the region. Growing assertiveness of China in the region is a cause of great concern for not only Southeast Asian nations but also for the United States which seeks peace and stability in the region. The paper then explores the US-Indo relations, which have enhanced its economic and military engagement post-Cold War. Extension of US-India defense framework and participation of India in various military exercises has further strengthened the strategic partnership between the two nations. In the end, the paper explores the growing strategic importance of India in the region, greater politico-military engagement of India with Southeast Asian nations and greater enhancement of economic and defense cooperation between US and India is the way forward for ensuring security in Southeast Asia"--Abstract.