India-East Asia Integration: A Win-Win for Asia

This paper argues that India's unilateral liberalisation policies since the early 1990s, and purposeful and strategic pursual of its Look East Policy have resulted in considerably greater integration with the rest of Asia than is commonly realised or acknowledged. Moreover, the enabling conditions for greater economic integration among major Asian economies have been laid. If Asia is to increase its economic and political weight in world affairs, India's involvement would have to be an integral part of the Asia-wide cooperation. It is in this context that closer cooperation among Japan, ASEAN, South Korea, India and China would provide considerable win-win opportunities and will have far-ranging implications for the world.