Write a short note on the evolution from Look East to Act east of India's policy.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the new government of India has made its relations with East Asian neighbours a foreign policy priority at a time when the United States has engaged in a "pivot to Asia". It is called Act East policy, following on from the Look East policy which was introduced during the government of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao 25 years ago From the very beginning the Modi government made it clear that India would focus more and more on improving relation with ASEAN and other East Asian countries as per India's Look East Policy which was formulated during Narasimha Rao's government in 1992 for better economic engagement with its eastern neighbours. Modi government successfully turned it into a tool for forging strategic partnership and security cooperation with countries in that region in general and Vietnam and Japan in particular. Thus, from economic relation essentially to security relation. Act east policy aims at stabilising the Asia pacific by actively cooperating with the regional powers (ASEAN and others). Its unspoken but underlying aim is to check China so that India's interests in the region are not threatened.
