The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an “important pillar” of India’s Act East policy, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, as he departed for Indonesia to attend the 20th ASEAN-India summit and 18th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Jakarta. Mr. Modi will meet with leaders of the ten ASEAN countries on Thursday, followed immediately by the EAS meeting, which includes leaders of all ASEAN nations and Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the U.S. While Mr. Modi will return immediately after the summits so as to be in Delhi in time for the arrival of guests of the G20, many of the leaders present in Indonesia and Indonesian President Joko Widodo himself will also travel to Delhi on Friday.
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“I look forward to discussing with ASEAN leaders the future contours of our partnership, which has now entered its fourth decade. Engagement with ASEAN is an important pillar of India’s ‘Act East’ policy. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership entered into last year has injected new dynamism in our ties,” said Mr. Modi in a departure statement, adding that he hopes to discuss “issues of importance to the region, including food and energy security, environment, health, and digital transformation” at the EAS summit.
After landing in Jakarta, he will attend the two back-to-back summits and leave for Delhi, officials said. On Tuesday, New Delhi had thanked Indonesia for rescheduling the events into one morning, so as to facilitate Mr. Modi’s attendance.
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Jaishankar’s meeting
Meanwhile, just ahead of the G20 summit, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Jakarta on Wednesday, significant given Russia’s opposition to the language on Ukraine, which, along with other objections from China, are holding up the Leaders’ declaration due to be released at the summit in Delhi this weekend.
In a social media post after the meeting, Mr. Jaishankar wrote that they had discussed the East Asia Summit and G20 “issues”, adding that it had included a “useful stocktaking of our bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”
“The Ministers ... discussed practical steps to further develop trade, economic and energy cooperation as well as interaction in the fields of transport and finances,” said a statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that they spoke about increasing coordination at the UN, SCO, BRICS and G20.