India, ASEAN discuss ties in key sectors

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 12

India and ASEAN on Saturday carried out a comprehensive review of their strategic partnership.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar co-chaired a virtual ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting along with Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Don Pramudwinai.

This was the first major interaction with ASEAN after India walked out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the eleventh hour.

A new plan of action was adopted for the next five years, said the Ministry of External Affairs.

“The meeting reviewed the status of ASEAN-India strategic partnership in several areas, including maritime cooperation, connectivity, education and capacity building and people-to-people contacts,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Preparations for the upcoming 17th ASEAN-India summit were also looked into.

India, along with China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, is in the first rung of ASEAN’s observer members. The RCEP was to be a free trade agreement among these six countries and the 10 of ASEAN, but India stayed away as its interests were not being safeguarded.

Strategic analysts in India have hoped ASEAN will tilt towards the Quad (US-India-Australia-Japan) in the contestation of South China Sea. On the other hand, China has been resisting a tandem act by the Quad to persuade ASEAN by raising its bilateral ties with member countries. In the latest such instance, Indonesian and Chinese Defence Ministers decided to shelve their divergence on South China Sea and build on the existing ties that include a high-speed railway from Jakarta to Bandung.