On Saturday, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar spoke at the 19th ASEAN -India Summit in Phnom Penh. Following his remarks, India and the ASEAN nations committed to forging a comprehensive strategic relationship and stepping up anti-terrorism cooperation. Dhankhar is spending three days in Cambodia. The ASEAN-India Friendship Year is being observed in honour of the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India ties.
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are among the ten Southeast Asian nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a global organisation. By developing new venues for communication between India and the ten-member bloc, the ASEAN member states and India seek to improve their cybersecurity collaboration.
They noted in a joint statement the strong cross-cultural exchanges, marine connectivity, and deep ties between Southeast Asia and India that have grown stronger over the past 30 years, laying the groundwork for ASEAN-India relations. Prior to giving a speech at the summit, Dhankhar and Hun Sen discussed ways to improve bilateral connections, notably in sectors like human resources, demining, and development initiatives.
Boosting the 🇮🇳🇻🇳 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
VP Jagdeep Dhankhar @VPSecretariat met PM Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam on the margins of ASEAN-India Summit.
Reaffirmed to work together in the areas of trade, economy, security, culture, & synergy in international domain. pic.twitter.com/ieW6cZPvXT
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) November 12, 2022
India and the ASEAN countries pledged in the joint declaration to strengthen regional capacity-building initiatives in digital transformation, trade, skills, and innovation, as well as hackathons, to cooperate more closely in the digital economy. In order to create a food supply that is robust to the future and sustainable, they also stated that they will increase collaboration in smart agriculture, including the sharing of best practises in the application of new technology.
“We will explore cooperation such as city-to-city partnerships between ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) and Smart City Mission of India by fostering exchanges of best practices and capacity-building to help build cities that are resilient, innovative, well-connected, and technologically advanced,” the statement read.
It was stated that through enhancing their public health partnership, particularly in the areas of research and development and public health emergencies, ASEAN and India will improve healthcare for their respective populations.
The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) review process was accelerated in an effort to make it more user-friendly, straightforward, and trade-facilitative. They also collaborated to create resilient supply chains and explored working together on a single window platform to improve trade facilitation and integration. They also stated that they would encourage cooperation between ASEAN and Indian space industry players, including in new areas of collaboration, and further enhance ASEAN-India cooperation in the space sector, including through the establishment of tracking, data reception and processing stations in Vietnam and Indonesia.
By effectively implementing the ASEAN-India tourist work plans, the member nations of ASEAN and India resolved to revitalise the tourism and allied businesses, which have been badly impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic.
Dhankhar will take part in the 17th East Asia Summit, which will take place on November 13 and will include all ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members as well as its eight dialogue partners: India, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Russia.