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11/10/24 09:21 AM IST

ASEAN & East Asia Summit

In News
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR, as part of this two-day visit to the country.
About ASEAN
  • On August 8, 1967, five Southeast Asian leaders – the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – came together in Bangkok.
  • Thailand was brokering some disputes among Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and the event eventually led to the signing of a document.
  • The five Foreign Ministers who signed it – Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the most successful inter-governmental organisation in the developing world today.
  • And the document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.
  • The ASEAN Declaration conveyed the aspiration to further regional cooperation in economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields. Promoting regional peace and stability was another major goal.
  • It stipulated that the Association would be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes.
  • Over the next few decades, five others joined – Brunei Darussalam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
  • The 10-nation grouping has an anthem, a flag and biannual summits (twice a year) with a rotating chairmanship.
  • An example of the focus on unity, its official motto is “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”. Its major pillars are Political-Security Community (APSC), Economic Community (AEC) and Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).
India & ASEAN
  • ASEAN is central to India’s ‘Act East’ policy, which focuses on the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • It was formulated as the next step to the ‘Look East’ Policy which originated in the 1990s.
  • The India-ASEAN relationship subsequently gained political, strategic and cultural dimensions, including the establishment of institutional mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation.
  • India is part of the ASEAN Plus Six grouping, which includes China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.
  • In 2010, a Free Trade Agreement was also signed and entered into force between India and ASEAN.
  • While India was part of negotiations to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020, it ultimately decided not to do so. In recent years, trade has grown in terms of value, barring the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
East Asia Summit
  • The East Asia Summit (EAS) process was initiated in 2005 with 16 participating countries, namely the ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.
  • The United States and the Russian Federation joined later on.
  • It refers to the Meeting of Heads of State/Governments of these countries and is convened annually.
Source- Indian Express

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