India hosted the leaders of Myanmar and Vietnam in early October, underscoring once again the seriousness with which it is pursuing its Look East policy as it forges close economic and security ties with two significant nations in East and Southeast Asia and counters China's penetration of its neighborhood.
India's Look East Policy was explicitly designed to initiate New Delhi's re-engagement with East Asia after years of neglect during the Cold War. This is a time of great turmoil in the Asian strategic landscape and India is trying to make itself relevant to the region's members.
With its political and economic rise, Beijing has started dictating the boundaries of acceptable behavior to its neighbors and tensions are rising between China and smaller states in East Asia and Southeast Asia over territorial issues. The United States and its allies have already started re-assessing their regional strategies and a loose coalition is emerging to counterbalance China's growing power.