New Delhi. External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar is visiting Bangkok, Thailand to attend ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on August 1-2.
Dr Jaishankar would also be attending the 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (EAS FMM), 26th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and 10th Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Ministerial Meeting.
The ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, co-chaired by EAM and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand Don Pramudwinai on 1 August 2019, would review progress in the implementation of key decisions of the Leaders of ASEAN Member States (AMS) and India arrived at during the 25th Anniversary ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit held in New Delhi on January 25 last year and the Informal ASEAN-India Breakfast Summit held in Singapore on November 15, 2018, as also progress in implementation of the ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2016-2020).
They would also exchange views on important regional and international issues and on ways and means of further strengthening the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership.
The EAM would co-chair the 10th MGC Ministerial Meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Prak Sokhonn in the afternoon on August 1.
The Meeting would review practical cooperation under the MGC framework, adopt the MGC Plan of Action (2019-2022) and also discuss the various commemorative activities planned next year to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the MGC, which is the oldest sub-regional cooperation framework set up by the Mekong countries, namely Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam with any external partner.
The 9th EAS FMM is being held on August 2 and will discuss preparations for the East Asia Summit scheduled to be held in Bangkok on November 4, 2019.
In this context, the Ministers would discuss implementation of the Manila Plan of Action (2018-2022) to implement the Phnom Penh Declaration on the EAS Development Initiative, adopted by the EAS Leaders in 2012.
They would also deliberate on the current regional and international issues and on further strengthening of the EAS as the region’s prominent Leaders-led forum for discussion on global political-security and economic issues.
The 26th ARF in the afternoon on August 2 would focus on joint programmes and activities by the Member States and Organisations to foster habit of cooperation and build strategic trust in the region.
Under the ARF rubric, India and Myanmar organized a Field Training Exercise on Military Medicine in Lucknow in March 2019 for the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) countries.
Both at the EAS FMM and ARF, EAM would enumerate India’s Indo-Pacific vision, which was elaborated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore in June, 2018.
The EAM would also hold a number of bilateral meetings with his counterparts on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related multilateral meetings.
