20th ASEAN-India Summit
Recently the Indian Prime Minister has participated in the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Key Points:
- The Prime Minister reaffirmed the central role of ASEAN in the perspective of the Indo-Pacific region and highlighted the synergy between India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and ASEAN’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP).
- He discussed with ASEAN partners how to further strengthen the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and chart its future path.
- He also stressed the need to complete the review of the ASEAN-India Goods Trade Agreement (AITIGA) in a timely manner.
Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative:
- The ‘Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative’ was proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 14th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bangkok, Thailand on November 4, 2019.
- PM Modi had suggested this initiative for a safe and stable maritime zone.
ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific: It provides a vision to guide cooperation in the region and enhance ASEAN’s community building process and further strengthen existing ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit.
Key findings of the summit:
India has presented a 12-point program to strengthen ‘India-ASEAN’ cooperation in this conference.
These include the following:
- To establish an economic corridor with multi-modal connectivity that will connect South-East Asia-India-West Asia-Europe.
- Sharing India’s digital public infrastructure stack with ASEAN partners.
- Proposal to establish an ASEAN-India Fund for a Digital Future, which will focus on cooperation in digital transformation and financial connectivity.
- Invitation to ASEAN countries to join the World Health Organization – Global Center for Traditional Medicine (WHO-GCTM) established in India.
- Invitation to ASEAN countries to join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
- To support the “Economic and Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) to act as a knowledge partner.
- Call for enhanced cooperation on maritime safety, security and domain awareness. A call to collectively raise issues facing the Global South in multilateral fora.
- A call to work together on mission life. Offering to share India’s experience in providing affordable and quality medicines to the people through Jan Aushadhi Kendras.
ASEAN:
- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration.
- ASEAN is at the center of India’s Act East policy. This policy focuses on India’s extended neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region.
- India became a summit-level partner of ASEAN in 2002.
East Asia Summit (EAS):
- The East Asia Summit is a meeting of the Heads of State/Government of the countries participating in the EAS which is held annually.
- EAS is a forum of 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been formed to pursue the objectives of regional peace, security and prosperity.
- The East Asia Summit (EAS) process was initiated in 2005 with the holding of the first East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- At its inception, the East Asia Summit consisted of 16 participating countries. This group includes the ten member countries of ASEAN and Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States.
- The United States and the Russian Federation attended the sixth East Asia Summit in Bali, Indonesia on 19 November 2011.
Source – Indian Express
