At a summit in Indonesia on September 7, the leaders of India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will assess their relationships in sectors including maritime security and the digital economy. It is speculated that the two will offer guidelines for future cooperation.
According to reports, one of the main consequences of the ASEAN-India Summit, which will take place in Jakarta on Thursday, will be a new effort on maritime security. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to be making a quick trip to Indonesia to attend the East Asia Summit and the India-Asean Summit days before the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
On September 6, Modi will depart for Indonesia late that evening and return to New Delhi the same night. Indonesia recently changed the summits’ schedules to allow for PM Modi’s early departure. Due to his busy schedule, officials said that the Indian PM wouldn’t hold any bilateral talks between the two summits.
The focus has been on maritime security, cyber security, the digital economy, and developing areas of cooperation since the two sides raised their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022. This will be the first ASEAN-India summit since that time. Last November, the defense ministers of ASEAN and India met, and in May, they held their first maritime drill.
According to Saurabh Kumar, secretary for the external affairs ministry, the ASEAN Summit would give the leadership a chance to assess relationship progress and offer new guidelines for collaboration along the way.
The Act East policy of India and its vision for the larger Indo-Pacific are both fundamentally based on its connections with ASEAN.
The Indian side has concentrated on enhancing connection in the physical, digital, and economic spheres in anticipation of India and ASEAN celebrating their partnership’s 30th anniversary in 2022.
India and Indonesia launched direct flights through two private airlines in August, and India has also started direct flights to Vietnam.
In 2022–2023, trade between India and the ten-member association was worth $131.5 billion, making up more than 11% of India’s overall trade. To improve and facilitate trade, expand and diversify trade, and eliminate existing asymmetries, the two sides have also started reviewing the India-Asean trade-in-goods agreement. By 2025, this review ought to be finished.
The East Asia Summit, which brings together the 10 ASEAN members and eight dialogue partners, which are ‘Australia’, ‘India’, ‘China’, ‘Japan’, ‘South Korea’, ‘New Zealand’, ‘Russia’, and the ‘US’, is a key mechanism for a conversation on strategic matters. India is committed to strengthening this platform and making it more effective in dealing with contemporary challenges.
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