What is the issue?
- Philippines recently hosted the 50th anniversary summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia summits (EAS).
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) leader’s meeting and the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit were also held.
What is the view of India in the Phillipines Summits?
- Indian PM joined these meetings, and underscored India’s commitment to deepening ties with the ASEAN states and the wider Indo-Pacific region.
- Prime Minister has stressed India's relationship with ASEAN & its commitment to the EAS as key pillars of its foreign policy.
- He also vouched for joint action to curtail terrorism.
- He also assured ASEAN of steady support towards evolving a rules-based regional security architecture and.
What is the significance of Indo-Pacific?
- The Indo-Pacific region is now central to global politics and economics and recent days.
- Beijing is also more confident now of projecting its regional and global powers.
- Notably, it has benifited form the U.S. administration’s lack nof seriousness and consistency in its foreign policy.
- This makes this period of transition very significant for ASEAN and India that have a stake in the long-term stability of the region.
How is the current India ASEAN ties?
- ASEAN members and India together consist one of the largest economic regions with a total population of about 1.8 billion.
- ASEAN is currently India’s fourth largest trading partner, accounting for 10.2% of India’s total trade.
- India is ASEAN’s seventh largest trading partner and its service-based economy complements the manufacturing-based ASEAN.
- While there is considerable scope for further growth and increased co-operation, formidable security challenges remain.
- Ensuring a favourable balance of power in the region for ensure regional stability is crutial.
- India needs to further domestic economic reforms and enhance regional connectivity to be seen as a favourable partner.
Source: The Hindu
