India-asean relationship: Evolution, challenges and prospects

After 1990, under the influence of liberalization and globalization, India started adopting the “Look East Policy”. The most important achievement of the “Look East Policy” is India's entry in ASEAN. India-ASEAN relations have evolved overtime; India became the Regional (Sectoral) Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1992 and Complete Dialogue Partner in 1996. India also got the membership of ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996. India became summit level partner in 2002. Both India and ASEAN countries share a long cultural history, it helps to build concrete relationship between them in every sector. Giving a new height to its strategic partnership with ASEAN, India has signed several agreements with ASEAN for peace, progress and common development. Both India and ASEAN are committed to develop basic infrastructure, combat terrorism, to promote tourism and to tackle illegal activities such as women, children and arms trafficking. Presently India is following “Act East Policy” from 2015 instead of “Look East Policy”. India -ASEAN Summit have been held regularly since 2002. 16^th Summit was held in Bangkok (Thailand) on 03 November 2019, The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi attended it. Apart from cooperation there are many challenges in trade, connectivity sector. In 2019, India pulled itself from Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RECP) that may generate many obstacles in trade sector.