Reflections on India’s“Look East”Policy

Zhang Guihong & Qiu Changqing

In the early 1990s, under the guidance of all dimensional pragmatic foreign policy, former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao officially proposed the“Look East”policy in order to re-connect India with the dynamic Asia. This became the starting point of India’s“Look East”policy. In recent years,with the increasing overall national strength and the necessity of outreaching national interests, India accelerated the efforts of seeking the status of a major power, and began to reposition its international role. Meanwhile, the rapid rise of China and the shift of the priority of US global strategy to the Asia-Pacific region triggered new changes in the Asia-Pacific geopolitical landscape. As a result, India also began to actively participate in the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region, and has become an important participant and driving force in the evolution of Asia-Pacific geopolitical situation. Consequently, India’s“Look East”policy has also undergone many new changes.

I.The new trends of India’s“Look East”policy

The original motivation for India to promote the“Look East”policy is to draw on the economic development experience in Southeast Asia and East Asia through strengthening cooperation with ASEAN countries in order to attract foreign investment and develop India’s economy. India’s growth and the changes in the Asia-Pacific region in the 21st century accelerated the pace of India’s“Look East”strategy, and led to a gradual change of India’s strategic direction, geopolitical scope, and subject areas. As it further integrates into the Asia-Pacific regional cooperation process, India has become an important participant and driving force in the evolution of Asia-Pacific geopolitical situation. As former Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh put it, India’s“Look East”policy has entered a second phase. The first phase was primarily the development of economic and trade ties with ASEAN; the second phase is to extend the policy to Australia, China and Northeast Asia while strengthening economic ties and improving cooperation on maritime security and counter-terrorism with these countries.

1. From policy to strategy

In recent years, India accelerated the pace of its“Look East”policy, and focused on developing political, economic and security relations with countries in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and even the South Pacific. It primarily promotes the“Look East”policy from a strategic perspective, focusing on strategic security, energy access and economic interaction.With the growth of their economy and international influence,countries in the Asia-Pacific region are where India’s foreign interests converged; therefore, India has been increasing its attention and resource investment in the region. Given the changing balance of power, the deepening of economic cooperation, more complexity in the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region, India’s foreign policy in the region started to mark a new trend, shifting from a policy-oriented one to a more strategy-oriented one. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commented in 2005 that India’s“Look East”policy is not only an enhancement of foreign economic ties, but also a strategic shift in India’s global vision. There are multiple strategic objectives for India to actively promote the policy. In terms of policy implications,“Look East”policy combines national development and security strategies,involving political, diplomatic, economic, trade and security. At the political and diplomatic level, the acceleration of the policy expands India’s relations with the countries of Southeast Asia,East Asia and South Pacific, extends India’s influence beyond South Asia and expands its influence to the Asia-Pacific region.This enables India to play a role in regional and international affairs. As for economy and trade, the gradual integration into the Asia-Pacific region promotes the economic development of India. And in terms of security, as India plays a role in the Asia-Pacific region, it starts to get involved in the South China Sea affairs to test China’s strategic bottom line. India could take advantage of the maritime dispute between China and some ASEAN countries and Japan in order to develop its defense cooperation with these countries and seek to balance the strong rise of China in the Asia-Pacific region.

2. From land to sea

In the new century, it has become increasingly clear that India’s national strategic objectives are to surpass South Asia and seek for a status of a world power. Its maritime security strategy also started to reach beyond the Indian Ocean, and has a momentum to seek greater strategic space. India has publicly declared that“India’s range of strategic interests include the north of Arabian Sea and the South of the South China Sea.”India has also proposed a new naval strategy for the new century - the East Ocean Strategy - to vigorously develop the“blue water naval fleet”which includes aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines, attempting to extend its range of maritime activities eastwards into the South China Sea and even the entire Western Pacific region, so that geopolitical barriers of land-based development in India can be broken. The Indian government has always attached great importance to maintaining a powerful navy, and spared no expense to buy Russian aircraft carrier; the intention, of course, is to maintain dominance in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy proposed a new naval combat doctrine in 2004,which shifts its Naval strategy from the philosophy of coastal defense and regional deterrence into the strategy of“Ocean offensive”, and developed a vision of“Look East, Push West,Go South,”which aims to implement its“New Ocean Strategy”by controlling the Indian Ocean and exerting its influence in the Pacific on the East and Atlantic in the west.

India’s first step is to actively implement this“Eastern Ocean Strategy”and grow its influence in the South Sea.India realizes that in order to realize its growth targets, it must establish more contact with East Asia, and“Push East”is a reflection of that strategic decision. In early 2000, India’s then Minister of Defense George Fernandes stated during a trip to Japan:“India’s range of strategic interests include the north of Arabian Sea and the South of the South China Sea.”In October of 2001, India sent a fleet of six gunships to the South Sea to conduct the“2000 Pacific Expedition”joint military exercise with Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. In October 2004, the Indian navy’s east fleet sent five large ships on a 45-day port visit and military exercise mission that included five nations in the Asian Pacific region (Japan, Indonesia, South Korea,the Philippines, and Vietnam). This represented the largest scale sea expedition in Indian history.

3. From economy to security

Ever since India began implementing its Look East strategies,economic cooperation has been the main subject and driving force behind its relationship with the ASEAN nations. Its initial focus was to break into Southeast Asia and set up a base of influence there, in order to boost economic cooperation with the rest of the Asia-Pacific and bring in more capital, technology,and trade opportunities, thereby serving India’s internal goals of economic reform and opening up. The implementation of the Look East policy has helped India achieve substantial growth in its economic cooperation with ASEAN nations. Between 1993 and 2003, India’s trade volume with ASEAN nations grew at an average yearly rate of 16.5%. In particular, after seeing China, Japan, and South Korea make efforts to increase economic cooperation with the ASEAN nations and form the“10+1”and“10+3”cooperative mechanisms in response to the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, India increasingly realized the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to its internal economic development and accelerated its own pace to build systematic economic cooperation with regional states.

As India’s economic interest in the Asia-Pacific region grows,so too does its interest in regional security, as its defense and security concerns continue to expand. The focus of India’s Look East policy has shifted from economic and trade development to strengthening security ties. Since becoming a Full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1995, India’s relationship with ASEAN has continued to grow stronger. In 1996, India joined the ASEAN Regional Forum, which represents the first time India has participated in political and security dialogues within the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific Regions. In November 2002, at the ASEAN-India Summit, the two parties signed the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity. India acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) in October of 2003 during the 2nd ASEAN-India Summit in Bali, Indonesia, becoming the second non-ASEAN nation to join the TAC since China. In December of 2005, the First East Asia Summit accepted India,Australia, and New Zealand into the cooperation on top of the existing“Plus Three”arrangement, marking the shift of India’s focus in its cooperation with ASEAN, from economic growth to security and political dialogue.

II.The New Directions in India’s“Look East”Policy

Since the turn of the new century, India’s foreign policy, driven by its Look East strategy, has taken on a new high, lending more credence to the Look East movement. India has worked to solidify its power base in Southeast Asia and establish strategic partnerships with Japan and the Republic of Korea in Northeast Asia, in order to further extend its reaches to Australia and New Zealand in the South Pacific. Former Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee said in a speech:“India’s strategic reach today is much farther than the South Asia region.[Our] security environment ranges from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca across the Indian Ocean, including the Central Asian region in the North West, China in the North East and South East Asia. India’s strategic vision must also expand into these areas.”

1. Focusing on Southeast Asia and strengthen political,economic, and military cooperation with ASEAN nations

The Southeast Asia region is of vital importance in India’s Look East policy. India has always seen the ASEAN nations as its entry point into the Asia Pacific region. After nearly 20 years of nurturing, India’s relationship with the ASEAN nations has grown from Partial Dialogue Partner in 1992, to Full Dialogue Partner in 1996, to the fourth Plus One mechanism in 2002, to January of 2010, when the two parties signed the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. Cooperation in politics, economy, and military security has continued to strengthen over this period.

In the field of politics, India and ASEAN both see each other as important powers that may be relied upon. On the one hand, ASEAN can strengthen its partnership with India through its balancing great powers strategy, in order to better position itself among China, the US, and Japan. On the other hand, India can take this opportunity to get involved in Asia Pacific affairs and expand its influence. India became a Partial Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1992 and Full Dialogue Partner in 1995. In 2003 India acceded to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, formally institutionalizing its political cooperation with ASEAN.

In the field of economy, India views Southeast Asia as a critical external environment to its economic development goals. Since the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, China, Japan, and South Korea’s relationship with ASEAN has seen significant improvement, forcing India to shift its focus to the east as well. Especially as India’s efforts to work with its South Asian neighbors continue to stall, it desperately needs to create new opportunities for further growth. In 1997, India, along with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal, created the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). In July of 2000, the sub-regional Mekong-Ganga Cooperation between India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam was launched. In 2002, India and ASEAN formally agreed to hold yearly summits. The two parties signed the ASEANIndia Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation at the Second ASEAN-India Summit in 2003,negotiating to create the Regional Trade and Investment Agreement which covers cooperation in trade, service, and investment fields. Starting in November 2004, the two parties agreed to begin lowering tariff rates on 105 products based on the Early Harvest Program, and in the meantime engage in negotiations for the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. After several years of turbulence, the India-ASEAN Free Trade Zone has entered into full working status as of January 1, 2010.

In the field of security, India and ASEAN’s military cooperation has increased in frequency as well as depth, going from military exchanges in the beginning to“Comprehensive Defense Partnership”today. As the South China Sea issue has grown more international in scale in recent years, Southeast Asian nations have intensified their efforts to pull in major powers from outside the region to intervene in the South China Sea issue. Besides the United States, Vietnam and the Philippines have also tried to engage India and Japan. Political support backed with security assistance has become characteristic of the India-ASEAN relationship.

2. Entry into Northeast Asia, seeking new strategic partnership with Japan and South Korea

The first step of the effort is to create the Indian-Japanese Global Strategic Partnership to strengthen political, economic,and security cooperation. Specifics include holding high level strategic dialogue, creating full economic relationships, and intensifying maritime security, energy security, and maritime transportation cooperation. After India’s nuclear tests in 1998,Indian-Japanese relationships fell into a slump. Starting at the turn of the 21st century, however, Indian-Japanese relationships began to heat up and visits from high level leaders have grown in frequency. In August 2000, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited India and the two states entered into the“India-Japan Global Partnership.”In December,2006, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Japan and the two nations elevated their relationship to a“Strategic Global Partnership”and designated 2007 as the Indian-Japan Friendship and Exchange Year. In October 2008, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh again visited Japan and signed the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation with then Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo, agreeing to strengthen cooperation in anti-terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation, and defense exchanges and creating an institutional and legal framework under which the two nations can continue to deepen their military cooperation. In December 2009, then Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama visited India, and the two nations agreed to further deepen cooperation and execute the Action Plan laid out in the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, as well as hold yearly Sub-cabinet/Senior Officials 2+2 dialogues with their respective Secretaries of State and Defense to further cooperation on maritime security and transportation. From October 24 to 26, 2010,Prime Minister Singh again visited Japan and the two nations signed the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and published the Vision for India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership in the Next Decade, marking a new era in the Indian-Japanese relationship.

On the political front, both India and Japan strive to become permanent members of the UN Security Council. In 2005,then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited India and the two sides issued a joint declaration seeking further cooperation in United Nations reforms and in Security Council reforms in particular. They vowed to support each other’s efforts to become permanent members of the council.

Economically, both India and Japan are driven by internal pressure and their economic relationship continues to build.India desperately needs development capital, technology, and market from Japan. In February 2011, India and Japan signed a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, promising to greatly reduce trade tariffs on both sides. According to the FTA, Japan will eliminate up to 97% of the import duty currently levied on Indian goods, while India will eliminate 90% of the import duty currently levied on Japanese products. At the same time,India became the largest beneficiary of Japan’s governmental development assistance program.

On the security front, the two sides are holding strategic dialogue and military cooperation with increased frequency.In 2009, the two sides issued the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation. On December 19, 2011, India, Japan,and the United States held a trilateral meeting in Washington,which discussed India’s active engagement in its Look East policies. Joint Secretary for the Americas Jawed Ashraf and Joint Secretary for East Asia Gautam Bambawale from India,Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell from the US, and Koji Tsuruoka, Japanese deputy vice minister for foreign policy were in attendance.

The deepening relationship between India and Japan comes from a lack of visible conflicts as well as the two nations sharing similar views on global affairs. In particular, the two countries’stances on China share much strategic common ground. With China’s rapid ascension in recent years in the global political arena, Japan and India, both China’s neighbors,share complicated and conflicting reactions. India’s border disputes with China have yet to be resolved, therefore it views a stronger relationship with Japan as a way to counterbalance China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The second step of India’s effort is to strengthen its relationship with South Korea. Since the launch of India’s Look East policy, the two parties have seen impressive growth in economic cooperation. Trade volume grew from $6 billion in 1993 to $30 billion in 2010. In 2005, India and South Korea cosponsored the establishment of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in order to further accelerate growth in bilateral economic cooperation. Since the turn of the century,Indian-South Korean relationship has also heated up rapidly,which has led to closer military collaboration as well.

In 2004, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited India and the two sides forged a“Long-Term Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity.”In 2006, the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding that covers cooperation in the fields of defense, industry, and logistics.In January 2010, the two parties formally entered into a Strategic Partnership. By September 2010, Indian Minister of Defense A.K. Antony visited South Korea and signed two landscape MOUs covering defense cooperation and research and development cooperation. The two nations agreed to carry out naval cooperation to ensure the security of sea lanes in the Indian Ocean as well as participate in the establishment of the East Asian Security Architecture. South Korea, in its 2009“New Asia Initiative,”shifted its foreign policy focus from Northeastern Asia countries to the entire Asian region, which shares common interests and goal with India’s Look East policy. The newfound friendship between India and South Korea will hold significant sway in Northeast Asian foreign affairs.

3. Enter into the South Pacific region, enhancing relationships with Australia and New Zealand

As an extension to its Look East policy, India is placing considerable focus on building relationships with Australia,New Zealand, and the island nations in the South Pacific.Australia is the stronger power in the Southwestern Pacific and had at one point been viewed, along with India, as the“crown jewels”of the British Commonwealth. India desperately wishes to become a bridge between Australia and New Zealand and the rest of the Asian Pacific region. Foreign ministers from 14 nations including India and Australia held ministerial meetings from March 5 to 7, 1997, in Port Louis, Mauritius.The ministers discussed cooperation and action plans for the Indian Ocean Rim nations and created the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation. In 2003, India became a Dialogue Partner of the Pacific Island Forum. At the same time, India has intensified its economic and security cooperation with South Pacific nations including Australia and New Zealand. In 1998, India became an Observer at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium and frequently participated in regional naval exercises. In June 2001, then Minister of Defense and External Affairs Jaswant Singh visited Australia and the two nations agreed to hold strategic dialogues and hold discussions on maintaining Asian power balance and regional maritime security. In August 2001, India and Australia held their first formal strategic dialogue, reaching agreements on important issues within the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Trade volume between the two nations has also seen a significant rise in recent years, going from AUD 901 million in 1990 to AUD 6.54 billion in 2004. India has become Australia’s 13th largest trade partner. The Trade and Economic Framework Agreement negotiations held between India and Australia in 2005 focused on cooperation in the fields of energy, mining, infrastructure,IT, agriculture, and biotechnology. In March 2006, India and Australia signed an MOU to expand cooperation in defense,providing for cooperation in maritime security, anti-terrorism,defense industries, and defense research and development.On December 4, 2011, Australia removed its ban on Uranium exports to India. The improvement in Indian-Australian relationship has considerably strengthened India’s ties with the South Pacific region. By 2011, India has become New Zealand’s 7th largest export nation, with total trade volume reaching $1.2 billion. As part of its Look East policy, India launched negotiations with New Zealand on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, aiming to complete the FTA in 2012. At the same time, India continues to expand its ties with South Pacific island nations, boosted by the high number of Indian expats living in the South Pacific (in Fiji alone the number of Indian residents is approximately 300,000) as well as shared interests in the matters of climate change and maritime security. India’s stronger ties with the South Pacific island nations will undoubtedly aid its bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, as well as expand its influence in the South Pacific region overall.

III. The New Driving Force of India’s“Look East”Policy

India’s“Look East”policy shift results not only from the country’s development but also its understanding of how important India’s strategy for Asia-Pacific region is. It is deeply influenced by the external environment.

As Asia-Pacific region plays an increasingly important role in world politics and economic order, the“Look East”policy will become necessary for India to engage Asia and the world. In recent years, as its role as a great power of Asia strengthens,India has accelerated its effort to“Look East.”O(jiān)n one hand,this is due to the considerable rise of India’s economic and military prowess.

On the other hand, it is due to the fact that the regional order and power balance are undergoing adjustment and changes,exemplified by China’s rapid rise, which prompted the United States to declare its return to Southeast Asia, strengthening collaborations with its traditional allies such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines and so on. Furthermore, the United States wants to incorporate countries such as India and Vietnam into its Asia-Pacific sphere of influence, urging India to play a more important leadership role in Asia affairs by not only looking East, but also by participating in the socalled“oriental affairs”the United States has been watching closely.

As a result, India will play more attention to strengthening its relations with Asia-Pacific nations, thus expanding its influence in the region.

1. The endogenous force of India’s actively pushing forward its“Look East”policy is to expand its national interest abroad after rapid economic development.

Since the beginning of 1990s when it carried out economic reforms, India’s economy has been keeping the trend of rapid growth, thus forming a sound foundation for India to launch its great power diplomacy.

Nehru has written a long time ago that“Pacific is likely to take the place of the Atlantic as a future nerve center of the world. Though not directly a Pacific state, India will inevitably exercise an important influence there.”

As India’s overall power and its status as a country keeps rising in the world, the acceleration of its economic growth and development of information technology as well as enhanced military prowess has made India more and more confident in front of the international community. India has clearly proposed its strategic goal of becoming one of the world’s 6 major powers, in order to acquire a seat in the multipolar world. India’s“Look East”policy can significantly expand the space for its diplomatic maneuvers and increase its influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

India has already joined the ASEAN 10+1 mechanism and signed a free trade treaty with ASEAN, thus becoming a main participant of Asian regionalism and the Pan-Asian economic integration process. Meanwhile, India is an official dialogue partner in ASEAN regional forum and Southeast Asia Summit,maintaining collaborations and sharing common interest with Asia-Pacific countries on regional counter-terrorism,maritime security, and energy security. This provides India with favorable conditions to project is soft power and expand its strategic space.

2. Influence from China and America’s“return to Asia”is an exogenous force that strengthens India’s“Look East”policy.

In recent years, as China’s economy and military prowess gradually increase, some neighboring countries are having increased concerns over China, fearing that China’s powerful rise might change the balance of power in East Asia, thus seeking to counter China’s rise in Asia Pacific.

Since the financial crisis in the US broke out in 2008, China has kept its economic growth in the global financial crisis, and became the largest exporting country and the second largest economy in the world. China has also become the center of the economic reshuffling in the Asia Pacific region. India is very sensitive about China’s rapid rise, feeling disappointed and frightened, and as a result is very cautious and seeks to contain China.

India’s former foreign secretary has said that China’s policy towards Southeast Asia has become an important factor of India’s policy towards ASEAN countries. As China’s cooperation with ASEAN free trade area and that on the political front deepen, India started to revisit its strategy on regional collaboration, speeding up its strategic pace of looking East.

At the same time, due to the fact that China and India has border problems, collaborating with Asian Pacific countries could become an important way for India to balance China.

In recent years, China keeps displaying its power around India, exemplified by the constructions of ports by China in countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar. China also works to establish maritime connection with the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and so on, making India uneasy. As a response, India uses the internationalization of affairs around China as an excuse to engage in Asia Pacific’s regional matters, seeking to balance China.

The US has always been a main participant and facilitating force in the changes of Asia Pacific’s geopolitical order. It shifts its global strategic focus gradually to Asia Pacific, in order to incorporate Asia Pacific into the very international system that it dominates, thus shaping Asia Pacific’s new regional order with the US as the center.

At the beginning of Obama’s term as US president, he declared that he was a“Pacific president”. US State Secretary picked East Asia as the destination of her first visit, breaking the tradition of visiting Europe before Asia, and indicated that the US was preparing to engage and approach Asia in a more forceful and sustaining manner. While participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum in July 2007, the United States declared that it would“return to Southeast Asia”, and then joined the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia,and later joined the East Asia Summit in 2011.

On the front of economic cooperation, the US has changed its indifferent attitude towards Asia Pacific in the past, and actively pushes forward the negotiation of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), structuring a US-dominated network of economic collaboration in Asia Pacific region. On the security front, the US strengthens its military existence in Asia Pacific, deepens bilateral military cooperation with its traditional allies such as Japan, Korea, Australia, Philippines and so on, and teams up with Vietnam and India to contain China’s rise in Asia Pacific.

In the context of America’s return to Asia, India speeded up its paces of looking East, and started to engage in Asia Pacific affairs and economic cooperation. Since 2010, India has already started to have dialogues with other countries about Asia’s security, and redefines US-India global strategic partnership from both regional and global perspectives.

3. The increasing importance of Western Pacific is the driving force of India’s“Look East”policy.

As Asia Pacific’s economic status in the world rises and as the regional cooperation deepens, Asia Pacific has become a“highlight”in the world’s rapid economic development.

East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Pacific, as important parts of Asia Pacific, are necessary gateways for India to become a major power in Asia Pacific and that of the world.India, as a rapidly rising new economy, gradually turns its strategic focus to the East, seeking to realize its strategic goals as a great power by extending its overall collaboration with various countries in Asia Pacific.

From the perspective of geopolitics, Western Pacific is linking India Sea and the Pacific, and it could become a gateway for India to enter East Asia as well as Asia Pacific. At the same time, the US has shifted its strategic focus to Asia Pacific,and works hard to turn India into its stepping stone, thus providing India with favorable conditions to participate in Asia Pacific affairs.

Furthermore, along China’s powerful rise in Asia Pacific,the Asia Pacific region started to display the trend of having China as the center. In response, India started to revisit its own regional strategy from a strategic perspective, extending its strategic reach towards Western Pacific region, in order to expand the space for its strategic maneuver and make itself matter in Asian affairs. From the perspective of regional integration, the process of regional integration in Western Pacific has been deepening. As the US recently works to push forward the TPP, India started to increasingly treat its cooperation with countries in the Western Pacific free trade region as a way to create its own regional influence, in order to further integrate itself into collaboration with Asia Pacific,thus providing India with a sound surrounding environment for its“rise”.

IV. Conclusion

India’s new“Look East”policy is the necessary outcome of major shifts in its domestic and international structural factors. The Asia-Pacific region has become an important strategic space for much of India’s foreign policy, strategic concern, and economic interest. Through many years of continued effort,India’s Look East policy has enjoyed some early success. On the political front, India’s political dialogue with Asian-Pacific nations has increased in frequency, which has opened up its foreign policy space and grown its influence in the Asian-Pacific region substantially. On the economic front, India has hastened its pace of cooperation with and general entry into the Asia-Pacific region, reaching bilateral and multilateral economic agreements with ASEAN states, Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia and leading to growing trade volume for both sides. In the future the Indian government will continue to actively seek out cooperation within the Asia-Pacific region. By signing bilateral free-trade agreements with Southeast Asian, Northeast Asian, and South Pacific states, it aims to accelerate the pace of regional economic integration.On the security front, India is extending its reach beyond South Asia, creating new spheres of influence into the Asian-Pacific region, hoping to play a more pivotal role in East Asian and even South Pacific affairs. As globalization and regional economic integration continues to deepen India’s capability and will to integrate itself into Asia-Pacific region cooperation will continue to grow, which will impact China’s regional foreign policy and the balance of power in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The gigantic earthquake in Japan has given us many forwardlooking ideas about renewable energies. For instance, Mr.Takahashi, a senior research fellow from the Fujitsu Institute of Economic Studies, has put forth the idea of building an“Asian Community for the Development of Renewable Energy.”As he points out, the Japanese never thought of importing electric power from overseas. Japan can learn from the experiences of European countries in energy cooperation with neighboring countries. For one thing, it is technically feasible to establish a transnational power grid. The seabed cables connecting Norway and the Netherlands are 580 km long. The distance between Pusan and Tsushima Island is only 100 km, 200 km between Pusan and Fukuoka, and 50 km between Wakkanai and Yozhno-Sakhalinsk. Technically speaking, there is no problem at all to link Japan and it neighboring countries in an inter-state power grid.

Another impact is on the concept of nuclear power. In 1952,having reflected on the sources of disastrous war, the European countries began to put the energy resources which they have ever scrambled for under the management of a transnational agency—the European Coal and Steel Community. So the energy reserves no longer caused such a scramble among European nations. In the past 50 years, the European Coal and Steel Community has evolved into a unified European body with integrated markets and currency. The process of European integration is indeed very thought-provoking. In Asia, contention for energy resources in the East China Sea and the South China Sea has become a continual source of international tension. In Takahashi’s view, conditions may be ripe for countries in Asia to make joint efforts to tap energy resources. Specifically, it might be possible for neighboring countries to develop wind power and solar power in cooperation with each other on the controversial territories of Tsushima,Okinawa, Jeju and Sakhalin. Geothermal energy reserves on the Northern Territories are an additional area of cooperation.This renewable energy will be connected and put under joint management, and the renewable energy will also be connected to national power grids, as is the case in the integrated markets in the Nordic countries. The distance between the coastlines of the Republic of Korea and China’s Shandong Peninsula is around 400 km, which is no longer an obstacle for China.An extended transnational cooperative network of renewable energy may help ensure energy security and enhance economic interdependence and military confidence building.

To conclude, the March 11th earthquake was a great shock to Japan. It spurred Japan to consider change, most evidently in Japan’s energy concept and policy. However, it should also be noted that Japan’s political and economic“ecology”remains largely unchanged and its fiscal situation still very imbalanced.The earthquake made things significantly worse for Japan.While the international community was deeply impressed by the Japanese people’s calm and orderly responses during the earthquake and its aftermath, the Fukushima nuclear accident has undoubtedly had a negative impact on Japan’s international image. Japan is struggling to find a new strategy for national development, a struggle that is definitely linked to the changing faces of its elected government. In short, the country is still at loss in its bearings for its future national development strategy.