The Vietnamese President’s recent state visit to India reflects the steady consolidation of India’s engagement with Southeast Asia. High-level exchanges with Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, India’s continued participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)–led summit process and the expanding defense interactions — such as the India–ASEAN Defense Ministers’ engagement in Kuala Lumpur — collectively point to a sustained regional outreach rather than episodic diplomacy.

India’s engagement with ASEAN has also evolved from a traditional diplomatic outreach into a more institutionalized framework of cooperation. Bilateral trade has expanded significantly over the past decade, while mechanisms such as the ASEAN–India Free Trade Area, the ASEAN–India Plan of Action and regular summit-level consultations have created a structured basis for long-term engagement.

Connectivity initiatives, including the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway and broader efforts under India’s Act East Policy, seek to integrate India more closely with Southeast Asian production networks and supply chains. Although implementation delays have affected perceptions of reliability, the strategic intent behind these initiatives reflects India’s recognition that sustained relevance in Southeast Asia ultimately depends on deeper economic integration rather than security ties alone.

Aligning with ASEAN’s strategic culture

At the strategic level, India’s engagement increasingly aligns with ASEAN’s preference for inclusive and non-bloc regional architectures. Unlike alliance-driven approaches, India has consistently emphasized ASEAN centrality within the Indo-Pacific. It continues to participate actively in ASEAN-led institutions such as the East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum and ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus. 

This matters because ASEAN’s strategic culture prioritizes equilibrium, consultation and multi-alignment over rigid geopolitical camps. India’s relatively non-prescriptive approach, therefore, allows it to engage Southeast Asia without generating the dilemmas often associated with major-power competition. In this sense, India’s growing role is not merely about balancing China but about reinforcing ASEAN’s own preference for strategic autonomy and diversified partnerships.

Yet, these developments cannot be overstated. In the strategic calculus of Southeast Asia, India remains a secondary actor. Its trade and investment footprint is modest compared to China and the US, its project delivery record is uneven and its security role is very limited relative to that of the US.

But to dismiss India as a peripheral power would be equally misleading. India is not seeking to displace existing poles of influence. Instead, it is positioning itself within the layers of ASEAN’s strategic landscape by offering capabilities, partnerships and options that complement, rather than compete with, the region’s existing alignments.

Leveraging military collaboration to strengthen regional influence

India’s positioning takes on deeper significance when viewed through ASEAN’s central strategy for balancing China’s economic shadow with the security assurances of the US without being drawn into a binary alignment. Unlike the US, India does not demand alignment. Nor does it create structural dependency like China. India offers a unique, if limited, role as a stabilizing supplementary partner.  

One visible element of this approach is “defense cooperation.” The export of Brahmos missiles to the Philippines marked a significant shift in India’s external posture. Indonesia and Vietnam have since explored similar cooperation. Rather than creating alliance structures, such defense partnerships help strengthen localized deterrence and maritime resilience without intensifying great-power bloc dynamics.

Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is one of Mission Security and Growth for All in the Region’s (SAGAR) most substantive achievements. SAGAR is the Indian government’s overarching policy framework for engagement with the Indian Ocean Region. It focuses on combining naval cooperation, capacity building, blue economy and disaster response. At its core, SAGAR projects India as a net security provider, a maritime partner and a stabilizing actor in the Indian Ocean/adjoining Indo-Pacific. Through its operational platform, the Information Fusion Centre–Indian Ocean Region (IFC–IOR), India has built a collaborative maritime information ecosystem. The IFC–IOR uses data from partner nations to monitor shipping traffic and fishing encroachments, and to combat piracy and smuggling threats in the Indian Ocean Region.

Geography further reinforces India’s role. While the primary theater of US–China competition lies in the Western Pacific, the Eastern Indian Ocean forms a critical extension of Southeast Asia’s strategic space. Here, India possesses a natural advantage. Through initiatives such as SAGAR, it has strengthened ties with littoral states and maintains a stable maritime environment. For countries like Indonesia, this dimension of engagement is particularly relevant, as it links regional security to broader Indo-Pacific stability.

Deploying DPI and medical alternatives for ASEAN outreach

Beyond the military realm, India’s experience and success in digital public infrastructure (DPI) offer India a role that neither China nor the US can fully replicate. DPI is an initiative of the Indian government that allows its citizens to securely access essential government services, financial systems and economic opportunities while enabling them to make online financial transactions in real time.

At a time when many states are wary of both Chinese platform dependency and Western big-tech dominance, India’s DPI model offers a sovereignty–sensitive digital alternative built around interoperability, lower implementation costs and state ownership.

The joint statement issued during the 21st ASEAN-India Summit in October 2024 acknowledged “the opportunities for collaboration, with the mutual consent of ASEAN Member States and India, to utilize various kinds of platforms to promote DPI development across the region.” The emerging ASEAN–India pilot studies on DPI are already significant because they point toward a deeper form of integration. If successful, such initiatives could position India less as a geopolitical balancer and more as a provider of strategic technological alternatives. 

Similarly, India’s pharmaceutical sector contributes to regional resilience in ways that are quietly strategic. Indian affordable vaccines and generic medicines enhance health security without creating dependency. These contributions may not carry the weight of large infrastructure projects, but they reinforce trust and reliability, qualities that are central to ASEAN’s partnership calculus.

Trade deficits and delayed projects 

Taken together, these elements point to a distinctive model of engagement, one that aligns closely with ASEAN’s strategic culture. India does not seek to dominate or define the region’s trajectory. Instead, it operates as a complementary force, expanding options and reducing over-dependence on any single partner. In a system defined by hedging, such a role is inherently valuable.

However, this value should not obscure India’s limitations. Its economic engagement with ASEAN remains constrained. Trade levels lag significantly behind China, and its absence from major regional trade frameworks such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has limited deeper integration. Connectivity projects have often been delayed, undermining perceptions of reliability. These shortcomings matter, particularly in a region where economic considerations often outweigh strategic ones.

The challenge for India lies in maximizing this supplementary role. This requires consistent delivery, targeted engagement and clarity of purpose. Defense cooperation must evolve into long-term capability partnerships, digital initiatives into concrete adopted systems and connectivity projects as tangible projects. Without such follow-through, India’s contributions risk being seen as symbolic rather than substantive.

For ASEAN, the presence of a partner like India does not resolve its central dilemma, but it does make that dilemma more manageable. By expanding the range of available options, India helps in reducing the pressure to choose between the US and China. Ultimately, India’s strategy of being incremental, networked and non-confrontational, fits the region’s evolving dynamics. India’s role in Southeast Asia is best understood in terms of marginal gains rather than transformational impact. 

[Aysha Sadak Meeran edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.