Indian Mission to ASEAN

Jakarta

Date: 20 October, 2021

Madam Chair, Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen,

At the outset I deeply appreciate initiative of the ASEAN Secretariat and SOMCA for having an interaction with the Indian Mission to ASEAN and as India's Ambassador to ASEAN with me. This provides me with an opportunity to brief the esteemed Senior Officials on the collaboration in the cultural sphere between ASEAN and India.

As we start preparing to celebrate 30 years of ASEAN-India relations in 2022, a number of events shall be dedicated to cultural sphere. Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has identified Culture, Connectivity and Commerce as the three broad areas for collaboration between India and ASEAN. Cooperation in culture comes naturally to us because of age-old linkages between India and the region. Lot has been discussed in the last two days on these aspects.

On 7-8 October 2021, during the Third ASEAN-India Cultural and Civilizational Links Conference, Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. RR Singh, during inaugural session gave a detailed account of cultural ties between our two regions which is reflected not only in the form of monuments and temples, folklore and epics but in general way of life.

Let me touch upon a few broad areas:

Celebration of the Friendship Year:

We have agreed to work on the following areas in the Cultural Domain:

- Youth Summit

- Release of a Book on ASEAN-India Cultural Contacts

- ASEAN-India Artists Camp

- ASEAN-India Music Festival

- Launch of revamped Asian Traditional Textiles Museum, Cambodia

- ASEAN-India Media Exchange

- ASEAN-India Cooperation on Handicrafts

Conservation and Restoration of the cultural heritage:

It is extremely satisfying to see that Archaeological Survey of India is actively participating in the conservation and restoration of heritage sites such as Cham Temple Complex in Vietnam, Ta Prohm temple located in the Angkor World Heritage Site in Cambodia, VAT PHOU Temple in LAOS and Ananda Temple in Myanmar.

In this context, I am very happy to share with you that GoI has in principle approved the project on Listing ASEAN’s Heritage. We hope that the announcement will be made by Hon'ble PM during the ASEAN-India Summit scheduled for the next week. We shall seek guidance of the SOMCA and the ASEAN Secretariat to take the immediate steps with a view to establishing an institutional set-up. This has the potential of becoming one of the highlights of celebration of friendship year 2022.

Showcasing art craft and culture of ASEAN

As is widely known, the State of Haryana every year organizes a big Art and Crafts Mela at Surajkund, a town near Delhi. While invitation have already gone to the respectively ASEAN Member States, we are in touch with the organizers to try to bring all of them under one banner celebrating the friendship year 2022. I am very happy to inform that the Organizers have agreed to invite ASEAN as a Special Guest: Celebrating 30 years of Friendship. We look forward to the display of arts and crafts and collective cultural performances by ASEAN Member States in the same.

Yoga and Traditional Medicines:

The popularity of Yoga among the ASEAN Member States again is an indication of depth of our civilizational ties, which makes it easier to adopt, assimilate and practice. Efforts are being made to launch project in traditional medicines, which should also meet with the success.

Participation of youth:

As has been mentioned earlier, we have been organizing youth festivals, leadership programme, artists camps etc. for familiarizing the youth with each other’s culture. This has been going on quite successfully. A step ahead, now we intend to attract participation of youth through crowd sourcing on generating ideas, for example, for designing logos, suggesting tag-lines etc. I am very happy to inform the August Meeting that ASEAN and India have agreed to design special Logo, issue Joint Stamp and Commemorative Coins to commemorate the friendship year and we shall involved Youth of our countries in designing process through the crowd sourcing.

Publications:

We are very happy with the publication of The ASEAN brought out by the ASEAN Secretariat. The magazine is creating awareness including about the cultural linkages between India and ASEAN. We hope to bring out a publication in the coming year exclusively on the India-ASEAN Cultural linkages. In the course of India ASEAN Friendship Year we shall invite more ideas on publications. Exchange of journalists to familiarize themselves with both the shared heritage and modern day culture plays very important role in developing perspectives and sharing them with a larger audience. We would like to relaunch the project.

Showcasing art craft and culture of ASEAN

As is widely known, the State of Haryana every year organizes a big Art and Crafts Mela at Surajkund, a town near Delhi. While invitation have already gone to the respectively ASEAN Member States, we are in touch with the organizers to try to bring all of them under one banner celebrating the friendship year 2022. I am very happy to inform that the Organizers have agreed to invite ASEAN as a Special Guest: Celebrating 30 years of Friendship. We look forward to the display of arts and crafts and collective cultural performances by ASEAN Member States in the same.

Education:

Nalanda, situated in Rajgir, which was seat of higher education in the ancient India; which also symbolizes ties between India and this region, has now become one of the most important centres for enhancing collaboration in the sphere of education between us. As is known Nalanda University offers scholarships to the students from ASEAN Member States and we are in the final stage of launching ASEAN India Network of Universities. With the launch of this programme, we can say that we have come to a full circle after centuries.

Our effort has been to ensure the continuity in the cultural and civilizational ties and make it contemporary too!

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