Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to leave for the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta tonight to attend the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and 18th East Asia Summit. Indonesia is hosting the summits in its capacity as the current Chair of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
This year's summit is expected to unveil a revamped initiative to boost India-ASEAN maritime security cooperation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds summit talks with the leaders of the 10-nation influential bloc in Jakarta on Thursday.
As per media reports, the primary focus of the summit is enhancing India's trade and security ties with the ASEAN bloc.
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MEA's statement on PM Modi's visit
According to Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs,PM Modi will review the progress in ASEAN-India relations and provide them further direction at the summit.
"The prime minister will depart Delhi on the night of September 6 and return on the late evening of September 7. Given that the G20 summit follows shortly after the ASEAN summit, it will be a short visit," he said.
Asked whether the issue of China's release of the so-called "new standard" map would figure in the summit talks, Kumar said, "It is difficult to anticipate what would be discussed when the leaders meet, but issues which are of mutual concern -- regional and international-- would all come up."
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To another question on whether there is a possibility of consensus to reject the map on the issue at the ASEAN-India summit as a number of member countries of the grouping have already criticised China's cartographic aggression, the senior official said he cannot anticipate what would come out of the discussions.
Kumar said New Delhi appreciates Indonesia for making adjustments to the ASEAN meeting schedule so as to facilitate the prime minister's early return.
"This is a very short visit because the prime minister would be hosting the G20 summit and the effort is to participate in this important summit (ASEAN-India) and get back home as quickly as possible. So there would not be any bilateral (meeting) during the course of the visit," Kumar said.
He said the ASEAN-India summit would be "special" since it is the first one after the elevation of the relationship between the two sides to a comprehensive strategic partnership last year.
ASEAN Group
The ASEAN is considered one of the most influential groupings in the region, and India and several other countries including the US, China, Japan and Australia are its dialogue partners.
The 10 member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
The ties between India and ASEAN have been on a significant upswing in the last few years with focus being on boosting cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence.
