India-ASEAN Cooperation

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.

ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM)
Since ASEAN was established in 1967, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of all the member countries meet annually, with informal meetings and retreats in between. The 45th AMM was held in Phnom Penh on 6-13 July 2012. India will be participating in all the meetings of which it is a member. For example, ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, East Asia Summit Ministerial Meeting and ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting. Last ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (44th AMM) took place in Bali, Indonesia, 16-23 July 2011.

 

ASEAN Regional Forum
The Twenty-Sixth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and Post Ministerial Conference, which were held in Singapore on 23-25 July 1993, agreed to establish the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The inaugural meeting of the ARF was held in Bangkok on 25 July 1994.
Objectives :
The objectives of the ASEAN Regional Forum are outlined in the First ARF Chairman's Statement (1994), namely :

• To foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern; and
• To make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 27th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (1994) stated that "The ARF could become an effective consultative Asia-Pacific Forum for promoting open dialogue on political and security cooperation in the region. In this context, ASEAN should work with its ARF partners to bring about a more predictable and constructive pattern of relations in the Asia Pacific."

Achievements

• On the tenth year of the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ARF Ministers met in Phnom Penh on 18 June 2003 and declared that "despite the great diversity of its membership, the forum had attained a record of achievements that have contributed to the maintenance of peace, security and cooperation in the region." They cited in particular:
• The usefulness of the ARF as a venue for multilateral and bilateral dialogue and consultations and the establishment of effective principles for dialogue and cooperation, featuring decision-making by consensus, non-interference, incremental progress and moving at a pace comfortable to all.
• The willingness among ARF participants to discuss a wide range of security issues in a multilateral setting and mutual confidence gradually built by cooperative activities and cultivation of habits of dialogue and consultation on political and security issues.
• The transparency promoted by such ARF measures as the exchange of information relating to defence policy and the publication of defence white papers and
• The networking developed among national security, defence and military officials of ARF participants.

India-ASEAN Cooperation

• Our relations with ASEAN have grown since we became its Sectoral-level partner in 1992, an event which coincided with our own economic reforms process. These events enabled us to re-fashion our ‘Look East’ policy with ASEAN. The essential ingredient of this policy was the renewal of our civilisational linkages with our neighbours in South East and East Asia and the need to integrate with South East and East Asia whose economies have immense potential as partners for a dynamic Indian economy on a high growth path. This relationship has been growing steadily and has acquired qualitatively new dimensions, particularly since 2002, when we began our annual Summit level dialogue with ASEAN.
• ASEAN-India cooperation now covers a wide field, including Trade & Investment, Science & Technology, Information and Communication technology, biotechnology, advanced materials, space sciences and their applications, tourism, human resource development, transport & infrastructure, health and pharmaceuticals. Several new initiatives were announced at the last India-ASEAN Summit in October 2010.
• An important cornerstone of our engagement with ASEAN in terms of parliamentary contacts was reached when India was granted observer status at the 31st ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly at Hanoi in September 2010. This gave impetus to the people to people contacts between the people of the vibrant member states of ASEAN and the largest democracy in the world, India.
• Over the past few decades, together we have added strategic importance to our developing ties. India’s participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum and ADMM+ process has added depth to our relationship. India strongly supports various initiatives taken to improve connectivity between countries in the region. We are committed to bringing India and ASEAN even closer to each other through exploring our synergies to realize full potential of our relationship.
• ASEAN-India Agreement on Trade-in-Goods is a major step forward in this direction and we are looking forward to concluding the Agreement on Trade in Investment and Services. We would like to work with ASEAN to bring about our vision of regional economic integration and put together a Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia.
• In this quest for enhanced regional co operation and integration, we are engaged with several ASEAN countries’ through forums such as BIMSTEC, Mekong Ganga Cooperation, and East Asia Summit. Our participation in the East Asia Summit is a natural corollary of our growing multi-faceted engagement with ASEAN and our common desire for enhancing economic cooperation in East Asia which we consider an open and inclusive process.
• India and ASEAN have adopted a draft Plan of Action for 2010-15 in October, 2010 at India-ASEAN Summit at Hanoi.
• We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of ASEAN –India dialogue partnership and 10th anniversary of ASEAN –India summit level partnership hence 2012 marks the commemorative year of the partnership between ASEAN and India. India is going to host this commemorative summit in December 2012.