Prime Minister Narendra Modi will co-chair the 17th ASEAN-India Summit with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc to be held virtually on Thursday. The meet will focus on the ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025) adopted recently for strengthening relationships between the two sides.

“The summit will review the status of ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership and take stock of progress made in key areas such as connectivity, maritime cooperation, trade and commerce, education and capacity building etc,” according to an official release circulated by the Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday.

The leaders of all ten ASEAN Member States, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, will participate in the summit.

“The leaders will discuss ways to further strengthen ASEAN-India engagement and in this context will note the adoption of ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025). Covid-19, post-pandemic economic recovery and important regional and international developments will also be discussed at the summit,” the release added.

The ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025) seeks to have greater cooperation in all key areas of economic and strategic partnership and envisages an economically integrated and rules-based grouping that narrows the development gap.

Last year, India exited the negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with fifteen other countries, including the ASEAN mainly because of differences over offers to China. But New Delhi also indicated that it could consider individual trade and investment pacts with other members of the group individually.

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