India’s Interactions with East Asia: Opportunities and Challenges

India’s relations with countries of East Asia reveal its growing profile in the region in economic, technological, diplomatic, political and military spheres. India’s Look East policy, initiated in 1992, is bearing fruit now, as seen in the region becoming the largest trading partner of India, enhanced bilateral and multilateral diplomatic interactions, and long-term commitments in the security (maritime, cyber and space) fields. No doubt, relations between India and East Asia are acquiring depth as reflected in the broad-based interactions at the bilateral and multilateral levels as well as in trade, investments and people-to-people contacts in recent years. While Japan and both Koreas pose no major hurdle to India’s foreign policy goal of garnering support for its basic cause of territorial integrity and sovereignty, the equation with China presents a very complicated picture. The apparent lack of insistence on the reciprocity principle by India in its dealings with China reflects the growing asymmetries in power between the two. As a result, India has been trying to enhance its defence cooperation with South Korea and Japan.