Untitled Document
About the Book:
India's relations with both Japan and ASEAN have been growing rapidly as a result
of New Delhi's “Act-East Policy”. The Northeast Indian states are
beginning to court foreign investment as seen in the maiden Global Investors'
Summit in Guwahati, Assam earlier in February last year. In February 2018, the
government of Assam inked an agreement with the National Building Construction
Corporation (NBCC) to construct a 65-storey Twin Towers, in Guwahati, Assam
which is being touted as the hub of India's engagement efforts with the ASEAN
countries as a part of its “Act-East Policy”.
At the inauguration of India's longest bridge over the Lohit river in Assam
(on the third anniversary of his swearing in as the Prime Minister on May 26,
2017), PM Modi noted that “the eastern and north-eastern parts of the
country have the greatest potential for economic development, and this bridge
is just one element of the Union Government's vision in this regard.”
The development of Northeast India will also be in keeping with the present
government's strategy of “Neighbourhood First” as Bhutan and Nepal
were the first two countries, which PM Modi visited after taking over as the
PM. In addition, PM Modi had invited the Heads of State of all the SAARC countries
to his inauguration.
However, although the total trade between India and ASEAN stood at US$58.4 billion
in 2016, Northeast India only accounts for a miniscule portion of it in spite
of this geographical contiguity. On the other hand, in another worrying development-India
made up only 2.6 per cent of ASEAN's total external trade in 2016. In order
to bring up development levels in Northeast India to levels in other parts of
the country, cooperation with ASEAN and Japan is sine-qua-non. Only this will
ensure that the Northeastern part of India will be able to overcome the tyranny
of geography.
About the Author:
Dr. Rupakjyoti Borah is with the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS)
at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Before joining the Institute
of South Asian Studies, NUS, he was a Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for
Strategic Studies (JFSS), Tokyo. He has also worked as an Assistant Professor
of International Relations at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU),
India.
He holds a PhD from the School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU), India. He has published in the Journal of Asian Politics and
History, the Journal of East Asian Studies, Straits Times, Japan Times, Jerusalem
Post, Jakarta Post, Nikkei Asian Review among others.
He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs
(JIIA), Tokyo, the University of Cambridge (U.K) and the Australian National
University (ANU).
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