Vientiane, Laos:
PM Modi today attended the 21st ASEAN-India Summit in Laos. At the summit, PM Modi also announced a 10-point plan to strengthen ASEAN-India comprehensive partnership and asserted that ties with the regional grouping were critical for Asia’s future.
Here is PM Modi’s 10-point plan to strengthen ASEAN-India Comprehensive Partnership:
- Celebrating the year 2025 as ASEAN-India Year of Tourism for which India will make available USD 5 million towards joint activities.
- To celebrate a decade of the Act East Policy through several people centric activities, including a youth summit, a start-up festival, a hackathon, a music festival, building on an ASEAN-India netrowk of think tanks and the Delhi Dialogue.
- To organise an ASEAN-India women scientists conclave under the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund.
- Doubling the number of scholarships at the Nalanda University and a provision of new scholarships for ASEAN students at the Agricultural Universities in India.
- Review of the ASEAN-India Trade and Goods Agreement by 2025.
- Enhancing disaster resilience for which India would contribute an additional USD 5 million.
- Initiate a new health ministers’ track towards building health resilience.
- Initiate a regular mechanism of ASEAN-India cyber policy dialogue towards strengthening digital and cyber resilience.
- Organising a workshop on green hydrogen.
- Invite all ASEAN leaders to join the ‘Plant a Tree for Mother’ campaign towards building climate resilience.