PM leaves for ASEAN, East Asia summits today

“The prime minister will depart Delhi on the night of September 6 and return on September 7. Given that the G20 summit follows shortly after the ASEAN summit, it will be a short visit,” he said.

When 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.”

On August 28, Beijing released the 2023 edition of the “standard map of China” that includes Taiwan, the South China Sea, Arunachal Pradesh, and Aksai Chin as Chinese territories. India has dismissed the ‘map’ and lodged a strong protest with China over it. After China’s territorial claim over the South China Sea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines have already rejected the claim.

Indonesia is hosting the summit in its capacity as the current Chair of the ASEAN.

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.

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.

“India’s relations with ASEAN are the central pillar of our Act East policy as well as India’s vision for wider Indo-Pacific. India and ASEAN have a comprehensive engagement covering a wide array of areas,” Kumar said.

On economic ties, Kumar said the India-ASEAN trade volume in 2022-23 was USD 131.5 billion.

“It accounted for over 11 per cent of India’s trade for the year and was the second highest after India-EU trade,” he said.