India’s 10-point plan to strengthen India-ASEAN relations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 10-point plan at the 21st India-ASEAN Summit to strengthen India-ASEAN comprehensive partnership. 

What Is PM Modi's 10-Point Plan To Strengthen ASEAN-India Comprehensive Partnership?

1. The 10-point plan is focused on strengthening the India-ASEAN partnership and proposes to celebrate the year 2025 as the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism, for which India will make available USD 5 million towards joint activities.
2. It also includes doubling the number of scholarships at Nalanda University and providing new grants for ASEAN students at Agricultural Universities in India.
3. The plan proposed a celebration of the decade of Act East Policy through several people-centric activities including a youth summit, start-up festival, hackathon, music festival, ASEAN-India Network of Think-Tanks and Delhi Dialogue.
4. It also proposed to organise an ASEAN-India women scientists conclave under the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund.
5. Under the plan, India would make available USD 5 million for enhancing disaster resilience.
6. The plan proposes to initiate a new Health Ministers’ track towards building Health Resilience.
7. It also proposes the review of the ASEAN-India Trade and Goods Agreement by 2025.
8. Under the plan, a regular mechanism of the ASEAN-India Cyber Policy Dialogue will be initiated to strengthen digital and cyber resilience
9. It also proposes to organise a workshop on Green Hydrogen.
10. PM Modi also invited all ASEAN leaders to join the ‘Plant a Tree for Mother’ campaign towards building climate resilience.

Significance of ASEAN Countries

• PM Modi stressed that he believes that the 21st century is the ‘Asian Century’-- a century for India and ASEAN countries, and noted that India-ASEAN trade had doubled to over USD 130 billion in the past decade.
• India is celebrating a decade of its Act East Policy and ASEAN is its central pillar of the policy.
  • India-ASEAN cooperation began in the 1990s, driven by shared economic and strategic interests, particularly in response to China’s growing influence.
• India reiterated its full support for ASEAN Centrality, ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), and Lao PDR’s ASEAN Chairmanship’s  priorities and deliverables under their theme “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience”.
• Trade and investment:India and ASEAN have signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), significantly boosting trade and investment.
  • ASEAN is India’s 4th largest trading partner.
• India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway:Towards its east, India is part of a push to develop a highway connecting the country to Myanmar and Thailand.
  • The 1,400-km highway, first proposed in 2002, is expected to link India to the two SEA nations by land.
• Potential market:ASEAN constitutes the 3rd largest market in the world. This can help India utilize its export potential.
• Convergence with Indo-Pacific strategy: ASEAN is a crucial component of India's "Act East" policy and its "Indo-Pacific" strategy, reflecting the convergence of interests in the region.
• Countering China’s influence: Strengthening relations with ASEAN countries can serve as a counterbalance to China's influence in the region.
• Connectivity with North East: Connectivity initiatives with ASEAN can boost economic development in India's northeastern states by positioning them as a hub for regional trade and commerce.
• Important for rule-based order: ASEAN plays a central role in promoting a rules-based security architecture in the Indo-Pacific region, which is essential for the region's stability and prosperity.