ABSTRACT
This chapter comprehends Look East Policy (LEP) in the wake of India's economic and strategic engagement with its eastern neighbours based on contemporary trends and emerging ground realities and linked India's Northeastern region (NER) in the larger geoeconomic space through border trade and connectivity in an era of increasing regional and sub-regional cooperation. India's NER, consisting of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland shares 98 per cent of its land boundary with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. The early completion of the Stilwell Road would both promote both cross-border trade and provide transborder land connectivity corridor to NER. Trans-Asian Railway Southern Corridor is equally important for the promotion of cross-border trade and economic cooperation between NER and the neighbouring countries. India's NER shares 1434-km land border with Bangladesh. NER Bangladesh border trade has led to cross-border production linkages, as the minerals like coal and limestone from NER are used for the production of cements in Bangladesh.
