PM Modi To Leave For Tomorrow's ASEAN-India And East Asia Summit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves on Wednesday to Jakarta, Indonesian Capital for a quick visit for two days, September 6-7, for the annual ASEAN – India summit and the East Asia summit hosted by Southeast Asian country.
Earlier, PM Modi was disinclined to take part in summit hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo as G20 summit and US President Joe Biden”s visit to Delhi for the summit is on the door step. PM Modi was supposed be meeting Mr. Biden on Friday, 8th September among other special invitees.
Indo – Pacific, trade issues, situation in Myanmar and China”s recent “Standard map” are expected to be the agenda of PM”s Indonesia visit, according to reports.
Indonesian officials rescheduled the summits after India raised concern over paucity of time. Both summit were scheduled to be on September 7 with only a short break so that PM Modi could return back to India on the same day.
“The Indonesian side was kind enough so as to advance both summits to earlier in the day on September 7, so that PM Modi could return on the same day,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary Saurabh Kumar said.
He also added that PM Modi is not up for any bilateral meetings during Indonesian visit due to time shortage.
This is the first ASEAN – India summit since the two sides upgraded their relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022.
This year the summit is expected to augment the refurbished initiatives of ASEAN – Indian maritime security cooperation.
Mr. Kumar replied he “cannot anticipate”, when asked whether China”s recently published “Standard map” will be taken to the table.
“It is difficult to anticipate what will be discusses when the leaders meet, but issues which are of mutual concern, regional and international, would all come up in their discussion. Whether there would be consensus, I cannot anticipate”, Mr. Kumar said.
On Thursday, Mr. Modi will begin with ASEAN – India summit with leaders of 10 South East Asian countries of which countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei pronounced their concern over China”s “Standard map” issued last week. After that Mr. Modi will attend East Asian summit with U.S. Vice President Kamala Haris, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and leaders of ASEAN – 10. And then, PM Modi will return to Delhi.
