India hosted a special meeting of Foreign Ministers of ASEAN on 15-16 June 2022. This was propelled by not only India’s focus on the region for mutual economic benefits in accordance with its ACT East policy, but also its growing concern over the spiralling tension because of the increasing Chinese belligerence.

 

On this occasion, the Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar pushed for ‘deepening, broadening and upgrading the partnership’ as India enters the fourth decade of its partnership with ASEAN. He averred: 'A better-connected India and ASEAN would be well-positioned to promote decentralised globalisation and resilient and reliable supply chains that are needed by the international community. It is important that we identify a new set of priorities while ensuring the early realisation of our ongoing initiatives.'

 

The comprehensive agenda included a greater focus on trade and investment growth, physical and digital connectivity, defence and security, climate action and green growth and more people to people exchanges. Jaishankar also focused on the post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, observing that 'there is much ground yet to be covered as we walk towards post-pandemic recovery'. He also mentioned that ‘this path has become even more arduous with geo-political headwinds which we face due to developments in Ukraine and its knock-on effects on food and energy security, as well as fertilizer and commodities prices, and logistics and supply chain disruptions’. The meeting adopted a 17-point statement, which broadly had three dimensions. First, it acknowledged the need for greater cooperation in the field of defence and welcomed the upcoming ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting in November 2022 and the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise. Second, it called for further strengthening and deepening the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership for mutual benefit, across the whole spectrum of political, security, economic, socio-cultural and development cooperation by utilizing relevant existing ASEAN-led mechanisms. Third, it stressed the need to explore potential cooperation between the AOIP and Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative (IPOI) initiated by India, in areas such as maritime cooperation, including maritime security, maritime connectivity, the Blue Economy, Disaster Risk Management, Search and Rescue (SAR) cooperation, marine environmental protection, and maritime safety. Crucially, without naming China but taking cognisance of its growing belligerence, they reaffirmed the 'commitment to multilateralism founded on the principles of the international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other relevant UN treaties and conventions, maintain an open and inclusive regional cooperation framework, support ASEAN Centrality in the evolving rules-based regional architecture, uphold multilateralism in jointly responding to regional and global challenges'.

 

The statement emphasised the need to strengthen regional connectivity, including both physical and digital, and explore synergies between the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) 2025 and India’s connectivity initiatives under India’s Act East Policy, in line with 'Connecting the Connectivities' approach. It was also decided to review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) to ensure that it is more user friendly, simple and trade facilitative for businesses, by accelerating the process of endorsement of the review of AITIGA so that the AIFTA Joint Committee can be activated to oversee the implementation of the AITIGA Review. In the current environment, it is imperative.