15 Apr 2019
NEW DELHI, 15 April 2019 – Senior officials from ASEAN and India reaffirmed their strong commitment to take the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership to a greater height at the 21st ASEAN-India Senior Officials’ Meeting (AISOM) held in New Delhi, India, on 11-12 April.
They discussed the ways and means to further strengthen cooperation in a number of areas, including combating terrorism, violent extremism and transnational crimes; maritime cooperation; enhanced regional connectivity; trade and financial; investment and economic cooperation; climate change; agriculture; disaster management; science and technology; education; cultural and people to people linkages; sustainable development; and narrowing the development gaps.
Both sides also exchanged views on the evolving regional architecture and major power relations, and regional economic architecture and economic developments, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations. India reaffirmed its support for ASEAN Centrality in the regional architecture and in ASEAN-led mechanisms.
The meeting reviewed progress made in the implementation of decisions made by the Leaders at the Informal ASEAN-India Breakfast Summit in November last year as well as the Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity (2016-2020). The meeting further explored ways and means to effectively address the unimplemented measures contained in these important documents.
The Senior Officials’ Meeting was co-chaired by Secretary (East) of Ministry of External Affairs of India and SOM Leader of India, Vijay Thakur Singh and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and SOM Leader of Thailand, Busaya Mathelin.
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