Introduction The geographic proximity of North-Eastern India to Southeast Asia plays a critical role in implementing India's - Act East policy through the development of linkages and connections. The Look East policy was initiated in 1991 with the goal of developing relations with Southeast Asian countries in areas such as trade, tourism, and culture, for which the North East serves as a gateway due to the fact that 95 per cent of its borders are surrounded by – China, Nepal

The Association of South-East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, is a political and economic organisation that was established on August 8, 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration). When individualism and closed economies were the norms in Asia in the mid-1960s, the South-East Asian countries were among the first to recognise the benefits of cooperation and were instrumental in the formation of ASEAN. South-East Asia has reaped the rew