Act East Policy

The South China Sea region caters as a political and economic life preserver for the coastal region. It also has important strategic implications and base ground for coastal states to project their specific legitimate claims over oceanic resources. The narrative established by the post-cold war is of a unipolar world leaning highly towards hegemonic American interests, which turned out in rising of various geopolitical powers, those of India, China, and South-East Asian countries like, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. The rise of stakes of these countries in international relations is not just a by-product of American policies but also the product of their individual sovereign endeavours e.g. the rise of Asian tigers is a testimony to this fact. After the liberalisation policies of China and India in 1970s and 1990s respectively, the growth of South-East Asian Nations accelerated in world trade and geopolitics making the Malacca strait and South China Sea (SCS) as strategic rallying point for the powerful contenders of the region. This paper highlights how due to growing energy demands globally and its economic exploitation leads to the rise of the chances of strife among the surrounding coastal nations. The surrounding region is the main navigation route of heavily transported and largely populated area of South Asia and South East Asia. All these factors accumulated in the hegemonic interest of China were overtly protected by its cheque book diplomacy (financing Hambantota port-Sri Lanka, Gwadar port-Pakistan, One Belt, One Road strategy) to protect its economic and strategic national interests. Presence of America in Japan and South Korea is seen as a counter balancing force for China, however post 2008 subprime crises that gave economic shocks to America created economic gap in aiding these countries to tackle China. Hence it became the pivot to America's Asia Strategy to tackle China by combining efforts of contending nations of Indo-Pacific region (Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand)-the Quad to offer a united front against China. Further various issues pertaining to South China Sea dispute and challenges in the Indian Ocean region is dealt with. It also pertains to Chinese assertion on Indian Ocean under the garb of protecting it from piracy and oil spill disaster is frequently creating its rivalry with India; its military base in Djibouti is another reason for IndoChinese rivalry, which has its roots in India's interest in South China Sea, which is the main topic of discussion here. The paper also covers South China Sea in India's 'Act East Policy' as how India's long-standing Look East Policy is transformed into more assertive Act East Policy in the region.