Indian Mission to ASEAN

(Jakarta)

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Overview of India-ASEAN- Relations

India began formal engagement with ASEAN in 1992 as a “Sectoral Dialogue Partner” (Secretary level interaction) and subsequently as a “Dialogue Partner” in 1995. The initial years as a Dialogue Partner (DP) entailed interaction at the Foreign Minister level which was further upgraded to the Summit level in 2002, when the first such Summit level meeting was held. 

2. At the 20 year Commemorative Summit Meeting in New Delhi (December 2012) our Dialogue Partnership was further elevated to a Strategic Partnership.

3. During the 25-year Commemorative Summit in New Delhi (January 2018), India and ASEAN have further agreed that our Strategic Partnership will be focused on building cooperation in the maritime domain.

4. The year 2022 marks 30 years of ASEAN-India relations and it has been designated as ASEAN-India Friendship Year by the leaders in October 2021. A series of Activities have been held to celebrate the occasion including the Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the unveiling of Logo, Visit of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) delegation to India, the ASEAN-India High Level Conference on Renewable Energy, ASEAN-India Start-up Festival, inauguration of the ASEAN-India Network of Universities (AINU), the 7th Roundtable edition of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks, ASEAN-India Media Exchange, ASEAN-India Artist Camp, ASEAN-India Music Festival and the scheduled activities like first ASEAN India Maritime Exercise and ASEAN-India Youth Summit. A detailed list is enclosed in the Annexure.

5. At the 19^th ASEAN-India Summit to commemorate 30^th anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations on 12 November, 2022, the Strategic Partnership was elevated to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and on this occasion “Joint Statement on ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” was released.

Policy goals

5. India’s engagement with the ASEAN has been driven by three goals: (i) enhancing connectivity between India and ASEAN in the broadest sense of the term (ie, physical, digital, people-to-people, business etc.); (ii) strengthening the ASEAN organization; (iii) expanding practical cooperation in the maritime domain.

Institutional mechanisms for engaging ASEAN

Summit/AIFMM/AISOM

6. As with any multilateral platform, engagement with ASEAN is a multi-level interaction process. At the apex is the annual summits (“ASEAN-India Summit”) supported by meetings at the Foreign Minister level (“ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting”-AIFMM; In ASEAN’s terminology, it is called ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference(PMC) 10+1 Sessions with Dialogue partners) and Senior Official level meetings (“AISOM”) (ie, standalone, prior to AIFMM, prior to AI Summits). In 2022, 19^th ASEAN-India Summit was held on 12 November, 2022; AIFMM was held on 04 August, 2022 and 24^th AISOM was held on 15 June, 2022.The cycle of meetings begins at Ambassador’s level, ASEAN India Joint Cooperation Committee Meeting (AIJCC), which was held on 23 March 2022. Following were the highlights of the 19^th ASEAN-India Summit:

(i) Joint Statement on ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

(ii) Topping up of ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund (AISTDF) with USD 5 Million (Equivalent in INR).

The ASEAN-India Plan of Action & sectoral level Work Plans, for cooperation activities.

7. Mutually beneficial cooperation activities is one of the tools that is used to engage the ASEAN platform. Cooperation activities are identified either as part of the 5 year “Plan of Action” approved at the Foreign Ministers level, or through the Work Plans of cooperation generated during interactions with ASEAN ‘Sectoral Bodies’.

8. To support cooperation activities between ASEAN and India, Govt. of India has created three funds: (i) ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund (AIF), (ii) ASEAN-India Green Fund (AIGF) and ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund (AISTDF). 

Delhi Dialogue

9. The “Delhi Dialogue” (DD) mechanism hosted by EAM annually, traditionally also attended by some ASEAN Foreign Ministers, serves as the main Track 1.5 mechanism for our engagement. The DD-mechanism allows participation of think tanks, academics and prominent civil society persons from both India and the ASEAN region, in addition to government representatives from both sides with the objective of contributing ideas and perspectives to furthering the India-ASEAN strategic partnership . The XII^th edition of Delhi Dialogue was held on  16-17 June, 2022.

Sectoral Dialogue mechanisms:

10. In addition to the Summit-Foreign Minister-SOM-Ambassador level interactions, Indian line ministries also interact with their ASEAN counterparts through sector-specific dialogue mechanisms. The following are some of the important sectoral bodies:

• For business and trade: The AEM + India meetings (Ministerial level)
• For Energy: EAS Energy Ministers Meeting (Ministerial level)
• For Education: EAS Education Ministers Meeting (Ministerial level)
• For activities in the ICT domain; digital connectivity with ASEAN: ADGMIN (It was called TELMIN before 2021.)+India meetings (Ministerial level).
• For promoting maritime connectivity activities: ASEAN India Maritime Transport Working Group (AIMTWG) (Official)
• For promoting road connectivity activities: ASEAN Highways Sub WG (AHSWG) (Official level)
• For promoting cooperation activities in the Agriculture sector: ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry (AIMMAF) (Ministerial level)
• For promoting security sector cooperation including combating terrorism, transnational crimes, drug trafficking. SOMTC + India (SOM level)
• For promoting cooperation in S&T and the Space Sector: ASEAN-India Working Group on S&T (AIWGST) (Secretary level)

ASEAN India Centre (AIC)

11. Proposed by an Eminent Persons Group in 2012 it is envisaged as a standing institution made up of nominated Indian and ASEAN officials/private sector personnel, who will be tasked to support the official tracks of India-ASEAN engagement by providing background research, organizing seminar, special events etc. Presently an “ASEAN India Centre”, has been set up inside the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) New Delhi. The Centre has been actively engaged in organising activities including with a view to strengthen people- people contact.

ASEAN-led frameworks

12. In addition to all the above India-ASEAN mechanisms, India also engages the ASEAN multilateral platform through participation in meetings of various ‘ASEAN-led frameworks” i.e. multilateral platforms chaired by ASEAN. In particular, India regularly participates in the meetings of the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting+ (ADMM+) and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) meetings and its supporting processes.  The most important amongst the ASEAN-led frameworks is the EAS which is a Leaders-only format made up of leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries and Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, RoK, Russia and the US.  These ASEAN-led frameworks are widely expected to eventually evolve into the principal building blocks of an ASEAN centered regional security architecture.

India-ASEAN economic engagements

13. The three main formal institutional mechanisms being used to promote the India-ASEAN economic ‘connect’ are as follows:

• ASEAN Economic Ministers-India Consultations (AEM + India): The ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) is one of the main ASEAN ‘sectoral bodies’ and therefore AEM-India meetings, one of our most important sectoral body engagements; Commerce Minister attends these meetings. In recent times main agenda of discussions in AEM-India meetings has been review of AITIGA. 19^th AEM-India Consultation Meeting endorsed the Scope of the Review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA).

• The ASEAN India Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (2003): finalized during the 2^nd Summit meeting in 2003, the agreement provides the ‘mandate’ for the creation of an ASEAN-India Free Trade Area. Subsequently, under its provisions, an (i) ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA, signed 2009, in-force 1 January 2010); (ii) the ASEAN-India Agreement for Trade in Services (AITISA, signed 2014 and all partied ratified it in 2018) and Agreement on Investment (signed 2014, have been finalized and ratified by all parties).

• ASEAN-India Business Council (AIBC): Set up in 2003 as part of the measures contemplated to promote Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between India and the ASEAN region. It is meant to serve as a private sector mechanism to provide Governments on both sides with authoritative feedback on their current policies and also recommend steps that Governments could take to further promote the ASEAN -India economic partnership. Meetings of the AIBC, which typically take place on the margins of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, are also meant to provide opportunities for Indian captains of industry to network with ASEAN captains of industry. The last meeting took place in September 2022.

14. Trade in Commodities: Taken in aggregative terms, commodity trade between India and ASEAN region has reached USD 110.39 billion in last financial year i.e. April 2021- March 2022, with exports to ASEAN worth USD 42.327 billion and imports from ASEAN worth USD 68.07 billion. This is for the first time bilateral trade with ASEAN has crossed 100 billion. (Table 1 &2) (source DGFT)

15. Investment: Structurally, investments between India-ASEAN are mainly concentrated on Singapore. Between 2000-2019, cumulative FDIs from ASEAN to India was $117.88 billion, but these were mainly accounted for by Singaporean investments in India ($115 billion).

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Annexure: LIST OF COMMEMORATIVE ACTIVITIES

1. ASEAN-India High Level Conference on Renewable Energy (Virtual, 7-8 February 2022)


2. ASEAN-India Logo & Tag-Line Competition (14 February – 14 March, 2022)


3. 7^th Round-table of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (Virtual, 12-13 May, 2022)


4. ASEAN-India Media Exchange Programme from ASEAN to India (New Delhi, 14-20 June, 2022)


5. 24^th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting in New Delhi (15 June 2022)


6. Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (SAIFMM) (New Delhi, 15-17 June 2022)


7. Delhi Dialogue XII coinciding with the SAIFMM (16-17 June, 2022)


8. Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (SAIFMM) (New Delhi, 16-17 June 2022)


9. Visit of Parliamentary Delegation from ASEAN to India (New Delhi, 10-14 August 2022)


10. ASEAN Cultural Heritage List (Set up of expert panel and ad-hoc working group for the feasibility study): (Project approved on 23.08.2022)


11. ASEAN-India Network of Universities (Jakarta, 29 August, 2022)


12. ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) scoping paper endorsed by AEM + India Consultation (Siem Reap, 16 September, 2022)


13. ASEAN-India Bazaar (09 October, 2022)


14. ASEAN-India Artist Camp (Udaipur, Rajasthan from 10-19 October, 2022)


15. ASEAN-India Startup Festival (Cibinong, Indonesia, 27-30 October, 2022)


16. ASEAN-India Media Exchange Programme from India to ASEAN (Singapore and Cambodia from 08-13 November, 2022)


17. Signing of an MoU between the ASEAN Centre for Energy(ACE) and The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI) (Virtual, 09 November, 2022)


18. 19^th ASEAN-India Summit to Commemorate 30^th Anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue relations and issuance of Joint Statement on ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (Siem Reap, 12 November, 2022)


19. ASEAN-India Music Festival (New Delhi and Shillong from 16-22 November 2022)


20. Cyber Threat Hunting Webinar (Virtually on 15-16, November, 2022)


21. First ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting ( 22 November 2022)


22. 4^th ASEAN-India Workshop on Blue Economy (Scheduled: New Delhi, 14-15 December 2022)


23. 4^th ASEAN-India 1.5 Track Cyber Dialogue( Tentatively First half of 2023)


24. ASEAN-India Youth Festival (Tentatively, February, 2023, in India)


25. ASEAN-India Maritime Security Exercise (Tentatively in 1^st half of 2023)


26. ASEAN-India Business Summit & Expo (Tentatively in Kuala Lumpur, in 1^st half of 2023, under approval)


27. Conference on Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine between ASEAN and India (Project is being finalized)


28. Workshop on National Cancer Grid “Vishwam” Global Cancer Project (Dates are being finalized)


29. SOMTC + India Work Program on Transnational Crime (The Draft Work Programme is being negotiated)


30. ASEAN-India Project Management Unit (AIPMU) (The Mission is in the process of establishing PMU)


31. Book on Cultural Contacts “Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia: Icons, Narratives, Monuments”: The book to be released at an opportune time.

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