18th ASEAN-INDIA SUMMIT

Rebooting Strategy

The 18th Asian-India summit highlighted a significant progress in ASEAN-India strategic partnership, with the implementation of various programmers and activities across the three ASEAN Community pillars, based on the current Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity (2021-25). The summit encouraged ASEAN and India to work together on sustainable economic recovery by exploring new opportunities for cooperation and the Blue Economy, which include developing key industries that can generate employment and enhance connectivity such as fisheries and Maritime transport.

ASEAN have some challenges as it is struggling to retain its internal coherence today. ASEAN members are ambivalent about the geopolitical conception of the Indo-Pacific. They are also wary about India's The 18th Asian-India summit highlighted a significant progress in ASEAN-India strategic partnership, with the implementation of various programmers’ and activities across the three ASEAN Community pillars, based on the current Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity (2021-25). The summit encouraged ASEAN and India to work together on sustainable economic recovery by exploring new opportunities for cooperation and the Blue Economy, which include developing key industries that can generate employment and enhance connectivity such as fisheries and Maritime transport.

ASEAN have some challenges as it is struggling to retain its internal coherence today. ASEAN members are ambivalent about the geopolitical conception of the Indo-Pacific. They are also wary about India's membership of the Quad that is viewed as a potential challenge to ASEAN centrality. Delhi's withdrawal from the region-wide free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2019, continues to rankle among the ASEAN members. The rise of China and its assertive policies towards its neighbors deeply trouble the ASEAN. THE region is also shaken to its core by the deepening political confrontation between the US and China.

Asia is changing rapidly and is very different today from the one that India re-engaged in the early 1990s in the name of a "Look East Policy". ASEAN centrality and unity have always been an important priority for India and this is enshrined in India's "Act East Policy" and Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). To make ASEAN robust, ASEAN needs a comprehensive effort to promote a better understanding of its policies and the new opportunities they present for deep economic and political cooperation. of the Quad that is viewed as a potential challenge to ASEAN centrality. Delhi's withdrawal from the region-wide free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2019, continues to rankle among the ASEAN members. The rise of China and its assertive policies towards its neighbors deeply trouble the ASEAN. THE region is also shaken to its core by the deepening political confrontation between the US and China.

Asia is changing rapidly and is very different today from the one that India re-engaged in the early 1990s in the name of a "Look East Policy". ASEAN centrality and unity have always been an important priority for India and this is enshrined in India's "Act East Policy" and Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). To make ASEAN robust, ASEAN needs a comprehensive effort to promote a better understanding of its policies and the new opportunities they present for deeper economic and political cooperation.