NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have no bilateral meetings in Jakarta during his visit to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit (EAS).
“The Prime Minister’s visit will be rather short as he has to be back for the G20 Summit. So, due to shortage of time, there will be no bilateral meeting that he will have during his visit,” said Secretary- East, Saurabh Kumar in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in response to a query by this newspaper.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has adjusted the timings of both summits to facilitate PM Modi to attend them as he has to return for the G20 Summit. American President Joe Biden will be in India when the PM returns (late on September 7) and the two leaders have a scheduled bilateral meeting on September 8.
“Indonesia has been kind to advance the timings of the EAS to make it easier for PM Modi to attend. Earlier, the EAS meeting was scheduled for the afternoon but it was adjusted. From 9 am to 10 am will be the ASEAN-India Summit and after a short gap of 15 minutes, the EAS meeting will be held,’’ said Kumar.
In the ASEAN-India Summit, leaders are likely to review their relations in areas ranging from maritime security to the digital economy and provide directions for future cooperation. A new initiative on maritime security is expected to be among the key outcomes of the ASEAN-India Summit.
This will be the first ASEAN-India Summit since the two sides elevated their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022, and the focus since then has been on maritime security, cyber security, digital economy and emerging areas of cooperation. An Asean-India defence ministers’ meeting was held last November and the two sides conducted their first maritime exercise in May.
PM Modi will leave for the Indonesian capital city on Wednesday evening and will return late on Thursday. The ties between India and ASEAN have been on a significant upswing in the last few years with the focus being on boosting cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence. The 10 member countries of the ASEAN bloc are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.