EAM Jaishankar to Attend ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Laos

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will visit Vientiane, Lao PDR, from July 25 to 27 to participate in Foreign Ministers’ Meetings under the ASEAN framework, including the ASEAN-India, East Asia Summit (EAS), and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced in a press release.

Minister Jaishankar is visiting Lao PDR at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith.

The visit underscores India’s deep engagement with and the importance it places on the ASEAN-centered regional architecture. It highlights India’s strong commitment to ASEAN unity, ASEAN centrality, the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), and advancing the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Notably, this year marks a decade of India’s Act East Policy, which was announced by Prime Minister Modi at the 9th East Asia Summit in 2014, according to the MEA.

The External Affairs Minister is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other countries in Vientiane on the margins of the ASEAN-related meetings.

ASEAN, a political and economic union of 10 countries in Southeast Asia, continues to grow in strength, and India remains a valued partner for the union.

Speaking to ANI in Vientiane earlier this month, the Director General of the ASEAN Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR, Chatoulong Bouasisavath, emphasized that India is a valued partner of ASEAN.

Following the announcement of the real-time payments linkage system between India and Singapore, India is also working with Malaysia and other ASEAN countries to extend this system to more countries in the region.

This year, India celebrates a decade of its ‘Act East’ policy, with ASEAN as its central pillar. India has reiterated its full support for ASEAN centrality, the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), and Lao PDR’s ASEAN Chairmanship priorities under the theme “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience.”

In September of last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Indonesia to attend the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit (EAS). This summit marked the first since the elevation of ties between India and ASEAN to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022.

(With ANI Inputs)
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