What is Act East Policy of India
Look East Policy was started in 1991 in India by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Under this policy, continuous efforts are being made to increase trade at regional and multilateral level. This policy is also used to increase the relationship between people to people. After this, the government of PM Narendra Modi constituted this policy in the Act East Policy. It was launched in November 2014 at the ‘East Asia’ summit of Myanmar.
Indian Act East Policy focusses on the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region. India has upgraded its relations to strategic partnership with Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK), Australia, Singapore and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It forged close ties with all countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from ASEAN, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and East Asia Summit (EAS), India has also been actively engaged in regional fora such as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) etc.
Indian Act East Policy has placed emphasis on India-ASEAN cooperation in our domestic agenda on infrastructure, manufacturing, trade, skills, urban renewal, smart cities, Make in India and other initiatives. Connectivity projects, cooperation in space, S&T and people-to-people exchanges could become a springboard for regional integration and prosperity.
The Object of ”Act East Policy” is to promote intensive and continuous interaction with Southeast Asian countries in enhancing connectivity, trade, culture, defense and people-to-people contacts at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.
The focus of the “Look East Policy ” was to increase economic integration with the South East Asian countries and the area was confined to SouthEast Asia only. On the other hand the focus of the “Act East Policy” is economic and security integration and the focus area increased to South East Asia as well as East Asia.
Some of the major projects include Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project, the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project, Rhi-Tiddim Road Project, Border Haats, etc.
FATF क्या है, जानिये कैसे करता है यह काम
Projects under the ‘act east policy’
Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project
The objective of the project is to provide an alternative connectivity to the North East Region from the Kolkata/Haldia port through Sittwe Port- Kaladan river up to Paletwa in Myanmar by waterway and Paletwa to Zorinpui by Road in Mizoram and provide an alternate route between the landlocked North-East and the rest of India.
Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWT&T)
North Eastern States are connected with eastern part of India through river Brahmaputra (NW-2) and river Barak (NW-16), Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghli river system (NW-1) via Sundarbans (NW-97) and Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route under a Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWT&T) between India and Bangladesh since 1972.
The Government sanctioned following projects for development of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) infrastructure on National Waterways in the North-Eastern Region (NER) for a period of 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25
(i) NW-2 (Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of river Brahmaputra) at the cost of Rs.461 Crore; and
(ii) NW-16 (river Barak) & Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route at the cost of Rs.145 Crore
Agartala Akhaura rail project
In order to strengthen the ties between India and Bangladesh, the Prime Ministers of both the countries had laid the foundation stone of the Agartala Akhaura Rail Link Project. In this 15.6 km rail project, 10 km track is to be built from Bangladesh side, while 5.6 km track has been completed from India side.
India-Japan Act East Forum
India-Japan Act East Forum was established in 2017 under India’s “Act East Policy” and Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” to enhance cooperation between India and Japan in the North-Eastern region (NER) and to promote connectivity, developmental infrastructure, industrial linkages as well as people-to-people contacts through tourism, culture and sports-related activities. In accordance with this vision, India and Japan have decided to launch a comprehensive initiative for sustainable development of NER.
Source – PIB
