The shocking news report that India has been served an ultimatum by its RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) negotiating partners to either give up its "obstructionist, defensive and half-hearted approach' or "quit' the forum testifies to the headwinds that our so-called Act East policy is encountering on the ground. (Hindu)


The Indian bureaucrats negotiating the RCEP are apparently beseeching Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a "strategic call' '" whether India should be in the RCEP tent at all. This is an absurd proposition, to say the least. Does Act East have a future without trade and investment?

Read MK Bhadrakumar's column here.