Discuss the role of the East Asia Summit's economic track in India's Act East and Indo-Pacific strategy.

The East Asia Summit's economic track — the EAS Economic Ministers' Meeting (EAS-EMM) and the parallel ASEAN-India Economic Ministers' Consultation — is where India's Act East Policy is converted from political intent into trade, supply-chain and energy outcomes. The 14th EAS-EMM at Manila (September 2026) illustrates both its value and its limits [1].

Giving Act East economic substance

• Scale of stakes: ASEAN accounts for around 11% of India's global trade, with bilateral trade at about USD 128 billion in 2025-26 [2].
• Keeping the AITIGA review alive: ministerial consultations repeatedly flag the review as a priority to make the pact simpler, user-friendly and trade-facilitative [4]; the technical work runs through eight Sub-Committees, with the 13th Joint Committee meeting held at New Delhi in July 2026 [2].
• Business-to-business reach: rules of origin, customs procedures and market access — the barriers exporters actually face — are negotiated here rather than at summit level [2].

Advancing Indo-Pacific objectives

• Plurilateral seating: the EAS-EMM places India alongside China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the US, supplying an economic dimension to an otherwise security-heavy Indo-Pacific agenda [1].
• Agenda convergence: the Manila meeting focused on supply-chain resilience, energy security and digital transformation — precisely India's de-risking priorities [1].
• Post-RCEP relevance: having stayed out of RCEP, this track keeps India embedded in ASEAN-centred economic architecture without binding tariff commitments.

Constraints

• The track is consultative and non-binding; it reviews progress but cannot conclude agreements.
• AITIGA remains a goods-only pact, leaving India's services strength outside the bargain — unlike newer deals such as the India-UK CETA and India-Oman CEPA, which package goods, services and professional mobility together [3].

The economic track is therefore an indispensable steering mechanism rather than a decision-making one. India's gains will depend on converting consultation into a time-bound AITIGA outcome and pairing it with domestic capacity-building under the Export Promotion Mission [3]. Used thus, it strengthens ASEAN centrality while making Act East genuinely act-oriented.