After independence, Jawaharlal Nehru attempted to weave unity among countries of Asia. One of the major partners in this effort was Indonesia. During the Cold War period, India’s relations with most of the South-East Asian nations was nominal. In 1991, India under Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao propounded the “Look East” Policy as an effort to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the South-East Asian countries and bolster it’s standing as a regional power. Subsequent Prime Ministers such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr. Manmohan Singh also pursued this policy.

In 2014, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi a more outcome-based policy of Act East was announced to focus more on relations with ASEAN and other East Asian countries especially Vietnam and Japan. India has particularly good relations with Singapore which is a major investor in India. Relations with Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia have also improved. India has a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN and is a partner in ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) a regional security group. India has promoted regional cooperation groups like BIMSTEC.