New Delhi, Aug. 24 -- I concluded my previous column arguing that the current geopolitical moment is similar to 1991 and that India ought to do now what it did then: undertake economic reforms and Look East. Even if it were not for the problems with the US, there has long been a case for a second round of economic liberalization and engagement of India's Southeast Asian neighbourhood. Now these are both urgent imperatives.

While India has increased its engagement of Southeast Asia since the 1990s in several important ways, there has always been a distance between the two. This is perhaps because India's motivations for engaging the region have primarily been geopolitical, with an eye on balancing Chinese power, while most that are countr...