Locating Northeast in India’s Neighbourhood Policy: Transnational Solutions to the Problems of a Periphery

India’s neighbourhood policy seems to be devoid of any strategy to integrate national interests with the concerns of border regions like Northeast India. India’s security-centric approach prevented a cooperative relationship from emerging with its neighbours, while a deeper and intense engagement with them would have benefitted India and helped solve many of the problems that Northeast India is facing today. However, the recent move by India under the Act East Policy to cultivate a much closer relationship with its eastern neighbours is full of possibilities to make India’s neighbourhood policy more accommodative and sensitive towards the needs of Northeast India. In the light of this, the proposed article intends to examine the nature of India’s neighbourhood policy, to assess its implications for the Northeast and finally, to examine whether the recent transnational engagements can initiate development of the Northeast by relieving it from its peripheral and landlocked status.