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Hard to say. It is tempting to think that, as ME is in a certain sense, an earlier form of our own world, that if you went far enough east, you would find other large kingdom's of man, corresponding to the large ancient Asian empires of our own world (Indian, Chinese, Kmer etc.) But as you point out, there is really nothing said one way or the other. If such kingdoms exist, I imagine that one of them is probably similar to Near Harad (if only because the Near Haradrim with thier skills at Oliphaunt riding seem as much Indian in orgin as North African/Middle Eastern) I'd say that there was some influence on the West in that one would assume that the far east would be where gunpowder was discovered (as it was in our world) but evidence seems to lay on the Ishtari discovering gunpower all on thier own (either Saruman figuring it out and letting Gandalf in on the technique back when they were still on speaking terms (or vice versa), or Gandalf discovering it independently.)
Actually, there might be a lot of incentive in later ME to find out what lay to the east. Besides wanting to make sure a new Dark Lord or some sort was not gathering power there wating to swing in and retake lands now rendered masterless by Sauron's defeat, Faramir might want to make a trip. He is still techically steward of Gondor (even if he only excercises that right in cases where the King is away on other matters. He might decide that the line of the Stewards needs a replacement horn (now that the original is broken and buried), and that would mean sending someone traipsing around the east in the hope that somewhere out there there are still Kine of Araw wandering around.
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