“Regional trade agreements have become in recent years a very prominent feature of multilateral trading system.” Taking into consideration this recent observation by the World Trade Organization (WTO), then Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath rightly stated during the Thailand crisis in April 2009 that, ”Both China and Japan have already started tapping East Asia by signing FTAs with ASEAN, as a large country in East Asia, India cannot be isolated.” The need to revive the Look East Policy (LEP) and to engage multilaterally with ASEAN nations has been finally realized and the country has awakened from its slumber. The Indian government is seriously engaging Myanmar in its strategic repositioning vis-à-vis China and the US in this part of the world. India and Myanmar share a 1,643km-long border thus making the Northeast of India an important link between the two regions. For India, an India-ASEAN FTA will be a major milestone in the area of multilateral engagements. Though the Indo-ASEAN car rally of 2004 did generate tremendous amount of goodwill with the Southeast Asian countries, nothing much could be achieved later. Historical facts reveal the significance of the Northeast to act as an "economic bridge" between India and Southeast Asia.

The latest delay in the signing of the India-ASEAN FTA has not only thwarted their regional prosperity but also affected the economy of the closely-linked border areas of the Indian Northeast. The India- ASEAN summit scheduled to be held in Pattaya in Thailand this April, was postponed indefinitely following anti-government demonstrations. Clearly there is great potential for Northeast India which serves as a contiguous gateway to the ASEAN nations. Linking Northeast India with the dynamic ASEAN promises vast economic opportunities and benefits including deepening of social and cultural ties in future.

Economically, market integration of the landlocked Northeast India with Southeast and East Asian countries will boost trade and automatically drive rapid economic development in the region. However, this primarily requires integrating the Northeast with the rest of India to make it a solid springboard for the globalization process. As one of the positive developments, the trade between India and ASEAN has been consistently increasing. Though there is tremendous scope for further increase in these statistics, a critical assessment would reveal that India’s efforts towards the Northeast are not enough to provide the region with a strategic platform. Northeast India is a storehouse of great natural resources but very backward economically and unless the region is developed at par with the rest of the country in its growth rate and development, it will be hard to achieve progress on the whole. To attain this goal, substantial investment in infrastructure, construction of roads, bridges, communication networks, harnessing of the region’s vast natural resources and other physical infrastructures that will facilitate trade and economic progress needs to be built up.

In fact, according to a very recent assessment by former Ambassador Veena Sikri at an IPCS seminar, one of the major problems with India has been its persistent ignoring of the border states and regarding them as dead-ends or closed shops, whereas, in reality they have tremendous economic potential. The issue about why India has not made any remarkable development in the Northeast since Independence is a big question seeking an answer from the Indian government. Many grants and economic aid has been sanctioned to the Northeast in the past but, there is very little sign of infrastructural development on the ground. There is also a need for transparency, accountability and good governance in handling the situation in the Indian Northeast.

With the impending FTA, India’s Northeast has suddenly grabbed the focus or the central role in regional dynamics. But this region has been lagging behind other Indian states in most respects in spite of its vast natural resources and strategic position as a link between India and Southeast and East Asian countries. Thus looking into the political, strategic and economic dimensions of the policy of India towards the ASEAN and East Asia, it can be a golden opportunity for the Northeast in the long run to solve the ongoing political and economic problems. One would strongly hope that the FTA between India and the ASEAN is signed as soon as possible as this will pave the way for economic prosperity of the Northeast and can also mark an end to the region’s alienation in its own country. The time has come to think of the borders with a new vision and as significant regions of connectivity and flourishing trade relations with Southeast Asia.