From 'Looking' to Engaging: India and East Asia
The Look East policy (LEP), launched in the early 1990s, was intended to engage India more closely with the East Asian region, but it met with only limited success initially, for India was not seen to be a major contributor either to regional security or economic development.
Superpower military withdrawal, China’s increasing assertiveness, and the unexpected emergence of the South China Sea as a major security issue encouraged some Southeast Asian countries to look again at India. With the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the focus, New Delhi managed to become a member of most regional multilateral initiatives and gradually strengthened bilateral ties with various countries.
Backed by a stupendous economic performance, India’s engagement with East Asia began to undergo a major transformation in the early 2000s. The LEP has evolved into a multi-faceted policy encompassing the entire region, comprising political, economic and strategic dimensions.
Download the full analysis
This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.
From 'Looking' to Engaging: India and East Asia
Author(s)
Related centers and programs
Discover our other research centers and programs
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
Find out more
Discover all our analyses
Quest for Strategic Autonomy? Europe Grapples with the US - China Rivalry
Building on the 2020 European Think Tank Network on China (ETNC) report, which assessed Europe’s positioning amid the strategic rivalry between the United States and China, this edition re-examines the geopolitical landscape in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s return to the White House. This report features 22 national chapters and one dedicated to the EU, analysing the evolution of Europe’s relations with Washington and Beijing, the range of approaches to dealing the US-China rivalry and how these are expected to evolve.
France seeks third way between US and China in Southeast Asia
The French leader sent a message of partnership but gave few concrete details on sustained engagement plans.
Mid-term Elections in the Philippines: The Clan War Reaches New Heights
Three years after the last general and presidential elections, Filipino voters once again went to the polls on May 12, 2025, to elect their municipal and parliamentary representatives.
India’s Green Hydrogen Strategy in Action: Policy Actions, Market Insights, and Global Opportunities
India is poised to remain the world’s fastest-growing major economy, and this rapid growth is driving a sharp rise in energy demand. As the most populous country on the planet, India urgently needs to decarbonize its energy systems.