India's Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific Framework

India's "Act East Policy," articulated in 2014 as an evolution of the earlier "Look East Policy" (1991), prioritises strategic, economic, and cultural engagement with Southeast and East Asia. Unlike its predecessor which focused primarily on trade, Act East explicitly incorporates security dimensions — deepening partnerships with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and ASEAN — while positioning India as a net security provider in the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific framing situates the Indian Ocean and Pacific as a single strategic space, with the Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) as its security anchor.