The Angkor Empire, created between the ninth to fourteenth centuries CE, borrowed extensively from Hinduism and Buddhism. The influence of India was also all-pervasive in trade, customs, and language. Yet, the Khmer Kings would not blindly emulate. They cherrypicked in order to impose their own personality on their evolving cultural ethos. They completely transformed the Indian blueprint into a glorious Khmer one that would even surpass the former in some respects.

India could not develop its foreign relations with Southeast Asia for most of the twentieth century as it was blocked by the Cold War divide. New Delhi’s eastern diplomacy faced another hurdle because of its troubled relations with Bangladesh and Myanmar. India’s desire to transform itself from a “South Asian Regional Power” to an “Asian Major Power” compelled it to develop political and economic relations with Asean, using it as a bridge to connect to East Asia. There is still an overhang of outstanding issues that needs to be addressed in order to make the Act East Policy more effective. The Asean India Free Trade Agreement came into force on January 1, 2010, but in order to accomplish its full trade potential and product integration, it is of crucial urgency to facilitate business-to-business connections, information flow, and harmonisation and mutual recognition of standards, as well as the removal of non-tariff barriers.

The balance sheet of Asean shows rich gains and massive losses in the 1967-2017 period. The anti-communist group has resolved some of its knotty bilateral territorial disputes just as successfully as its original five members have ensured high living standards for its people. Its newer members, however, are struggling to construct their economies. While it has done well in tackling intra-Asean disputes, it is riven with internal differences in its diplomacy with outside powers such as China over the South China Sea disputes, and its drive to integrate the economies of its ten member countries has been a partial success. The Asean human rights commission has given much cause for concern over its silence on the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas of Myanmar.

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Krishnan Srinivasan demonstrates in his book Old Europe, New Asia: Strategies, Challenges, Responses that Europe and emerging Asia could be natural partners with considerable synergy in fashioning a new multi-polar world, but they are handicapped by their respective internal weaknesses, lack of self-confidence, and the considerable influence of the United States despite its rebalance to Asia proving to be a non-starter. Ambassador Srinivasan identifies the limitations of current Europe-Asia relations, and explores the potential for the future. In the first part, the author examines Europe's interactions with China, and in the second he explores the India-Europe relationship. He recommends that India needs a