India to host Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' Meeting next week
Jun 09, 2022
New Delhi [India], June 9 : Marking the 30th anniversary of India-ASEAN dialogue relations and the 10th anniversary of the country's strategic partnership with ASEAN, India will host the Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' Meeting (SAIFMM) on June 16 and 17.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who is India's Country Coordinator, will co-chair the meeting.
Foreign Ministers of other ASEAN member states and the ASEAN Secretary-General will participate in the SAIFMM. This year has been designated as ASEAN-India Friendship Year.
ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of sectoral partnership in 1992 which graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995, Summit level Partnership in 2002, and Strategic partnership in 2012.
A Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) release said that ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership today stands on a strong foundation and ASEAN is central to India's Act East Policy and its vision for the wider Indo-Pacific.
"This multi-faceted partnership encompasses many sectoral dialogue mechanisms and working groups that meet regularly at various levels and include annual Summit, Ministerial and Senior Officials' meetings. The ongoing India-ASEAN collaboration is guided by the Plan of Action 2021-2025 which was adopted in 2020," the release said.
While ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' Meeting (FMM), hosted by ASEAN Chair, is an annual event, the SAIFMM would be the first ASEAN-India FMM to be hosted by India in New Delhi. The SAIFMM will be preceded by 24th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting on June 15.
The release said that SAIFMM will be accompanied by the 12th edition of Delhi Dialogue, a premier Tack 1.5 Dialogue in ASEAN-India calendar, which will be hosted by India on 16-17 June 2022. The theme of DD-XII is 'Building Bridges in the Indo-Pacific'. The ministerial session of DD-XII will be attended by EAM and the ASEAN Ministers.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson also briefed about SAIFMM at the weekly media briefing.
Answering a query about the participation of Myanmar, he said it will be as per ASEAN consensus in this regard.
"Myanmar is an ASEAN member state. So, the participation of Myanmar in this Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' meeting is as per ASEAN consensus in this regard," Bagchi said.
