India is committed to working together with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) as both sides pursue their long-term development plans for greater prosperity, prime minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
“The 21st century is our century, the century of India and Asean. I am confident that the Asean Community Vision 2045 and the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047 will build a bright future for all of humanity,” he said in his address to the 22nd Asean-India Summit delivered virtually. The summit is taking place in Kuala Lumpur.
Asean Community Vision 2045 is a 20-year roadmap of the grouping for creating a prosperous Asean as a single market with highly-skilled and inclusive workforce, productivity and innovation-driven growth, and incorporating sustainability across and along the value chain.
India and Asean have free trade agreements in goods and services – Asean India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) and Asean India Trade in Services Agreement (AITISA) respectively. Both sides elevated their strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022.
Both sides are reviewing their goods trade agreement and have a deadline to complete by the end of 2025.
“Even in this era of uncertainties, India-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has continued to make steady progress. And this strong partnership of ours is emerging as a robust foundation for global stability and development,” Modi said.
India has stood firmly with its ASEAN friends in every disaster. “Our cooperation in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), maritime security, and the blue economy is growing rapidly. In view of this, we are declaring 2026 as the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation,” the prime minister said.
ASEAN is a cornerstone of India’s Act East Policy. India has always fully supported ASEAN centrality and ASEAN’s outlook in the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, we are steadily advancing our cooperation in education, tourism, science and technology, health, green energy, and cyber security. “We will continue to work together to preserve our shared cultural heritage and strengthen people-to-people ties,” Modi added.