21st ASEAN-India Summit 2024: Strengthening Cooperation in a Transformative Era

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India-ASEAN friendship, coordination, dialogue, and cooperation are very important at a time when several parts of the world are facing conflicts and tension.

The 21^st ASEAN-India Summit, alongside the 19th East Asia Summit and some of the ASEAN Dialogue partners, was held on October 10-11, 2024 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The annual meetings of the summits were centred on the theme “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience”. And whereas Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed a 10-point plan to mark a decade of India’s Act East Policy (AEP). The plan included initiatives such as the ASEAN-India Cyber Policy Dialogue, ASEAN-India Year of Tourism: 2025, celebrations marking a decade of Act East Policy through people-centric activities, organizing ASEAN-India Women Scientists Conclave under ASEAN-India Science, a review of ASEAN-India trade in Goods Agreement by 2025, workshop on Green Hydrogen among others. The summit aimed to strengthen the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership while charting its future course of development.

During the summit, leaders of its dialogue partners discussed various areas of cooperation, including connectivity, digital transformation, trade, economic engagement, cooperation on counterterrorism, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain Technology, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, and deepening strategic engagement. Also, the summit adopted the Joint Statement on Strengthening the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace, Stability, and Prosperity in the Region along with the ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2026-2030). Moreover, the leaders of the ASEAN summit discussed maritime cooperation and food security. At the same time, the leaders reaffirmed ASEAN’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific region and highlighted the synergies between India’s Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative (IPOI) and ASEAN’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP).

What is ASEAN?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly known as ASEAN, is a political and economic transregional inter-governmental organization (IGO) in Southeast Asia. It was established through the Bangkok Declaration on August 8, 1967, which was signed by five founders of the Southeast Asian nations; Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Later, five others joined the ASEAN- Brunei Darussalam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Its primary objectives include fostering economic growth, and political stability, advancing social progress, promoting cultural development, and maintaining regional peace and security. As of now, ASEAN nation-states represent a population exceeding 600 million inhabitants and span an impressive landmass of 4.5 million square kilometres (1.7 million square miles). Today, it has also become the voice of the Global South, and most of its members are the emerging economies in the world. The organization governs through three key pillars: the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC), the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). Its official motto, “One Vision, One Identity, One Community”, underscores its unwavering commitment to unity and cooperation in Southeast Asia and Pacific Rim countries.

Moreover, the dialogue partners of the ASEAN and India are not only neighbours with both land and maritime boundaries but also hold deep civilizational relations along with collectively wielding strategic influence in Southeast Asia. The member states of ASEAN share around 7 per cent of the global GDP and over 26 per cent of the world’s population, which also represents the strategic influence of multi-regional organizations in the world. However, in the post-pandemic era, their relationship has reached an unprecedented high, with bilateral trade surging from just US$ 9 billion during their inaugural summit in 2002 to an anticipated milestone of over US$ 150 billion in 2024.

21^st ASEAN-India Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR

During the annual meetings of the ASEAN-India Summit and the summit of its dialogue partners in Vientiane, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 10-point proposal, as previously presented the 12-point proposal at the 20^th ASEAN summit Jakarta in 2023, to mark a decade of India’s Act East Policy (AEP) to strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and ASEAN. The dialogue partners focused on cooperation, including bolstering connectivity, socio-cultural relations, technology, promoting trade, and propelling digital transformation. Although, PM Modi had already outlined a plan to establish a multi-modal connectivity and economic corridor that is bridging Southeast Asia, India, West Asia, and Europe, which was introduced at the 20^th ASEAN-India summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Meanwhile, he also discussed sharing India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) stack with ASEAN partners and its dialogue partners in Southeast Asia and the Rim-Pacific countries. Within the digital public infrastructure, he was focused on a unified effort to counter terrorism, raise concerns of the financing of terror activities, counter cyber-crime and others. The dialogue partners of the ASEAN should raise the voice of the Global South in multilateral forums, underlining India’s commitment to a fair and just global order.

Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (SCS)

PM Modi participated in the 19th East Asia Summit (EAS) alongside the ASEAN summit with the dialogue partners, EAS is a regional forum in the Indo-Pacific and Rim-Pacific countries focused on security, defence matters, and peace. The participation of dialogue partners of the EAS highlights the strategic importance of joint efforts to safeguard all nations’ sovereignty and territorial integrity of Southeast Asia and Rim-Pacific countries. At the EAS summit in Vientiane, he further emphasized an effective code of conduct in the South China Sea (SCS) in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982.  “Peace, security and stability of the South China Sea are in the interest of the entire Indo-Pacific region. It is necessary to ensure freedom of navigation and air space. A strong and effective code of conduct should be created. And it should not curb the foreign policy of regional countries”, said Modi. These remarks consider growing global concerns regarding China’s military assertiveness and territorial claims in the South China Sea.

However, the first-time dialogue partners of the ASEAN spoke about China’s concerns in the South China Sea and the Myanmar issues at the Vientiane summit. PM Modi also reiterated the belief that the current era should be defined by dialogue and diplomacy, not conflict or war while addressing geopolitical disputes. Even though some of the ASEAN nations are unhappy with continuous Chinese incursion in the South China Sea, they focus more on economic and political cooperation with China rather than conflict. At the same time, India has also expressed its support for peaceful conflict resolution through dialogue and diplomacy on the South China Sea (SCS).