The Act East Policy (AEP) is a diplomatic strategy and concept of the Government of India, announced in November 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 12th ASEAN-India Summit in Myanmar. It is an upgrade of the earlier Look East Policy (LEP), which was formally introduced in 1991 by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to strengthen economic and political relations with Southeast Asia following the Cold War and India's economic liberalisation.
The AEP was created to shift India's engagement from a passive "looking" to a proactive "acting" role in the Asia-Pacific region. While the LEP primarily focused on economic cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the AEP expanded the geographical scope to the wider Indo-Pacific region, including East Asian nations like Japan and South Korea, and countries like Australia and New Zealand.
The policy works through a mechanism focused on the 4 C's: Culture, Commerce, Connectivity, and Capacity Building. Key provisions include enhancing trade and investment, deepening strategic and security cooperation, and improving physical and digital connectivity, such as the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway. A major objective is to enhance the economic development of India's North Eastern Region (NER) by positioning it as the gateway to Southeast Asia.
The AEP connects to and is a key component of India's broader Indo-Pacific vision and its engagement with multilateral forums like ASEAN, the East Asia Summit (EAS), and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It also involves strengthening strategic partnerships with countries like Japan, Vietnam, and Australia, partly to counter the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China.
The policy has changed recently, particularly in its strategic dimension, with a greater focus on security and defense cooperation, and a shift in approach towards border management. For instance, the abolition of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border in February 2024 signals a move toward prioritizing border security over historical cross-border ties, which contradicts the policy's integrationist spirit. Despite this, the core objectives of promoting economic, strategic, and cultural ties with the East remain the same.