The 10th ASEAN-India Summit and the 7th East Asia Summit will be hosted by the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh from 18th-20thNovember. It will be attended by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will also hold discussions on the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit to be held on December 20-21. The 7th EAS which is scheduled on November 20 is an annual forum of leaders of 18 countries including U.S. and Russia and is held after the annual ASEAN leaders’ meeting.
According to the Ministry of External affairs, leaders will consider the adoption of the Phnom Penh Declaration on East Asia Summit Development Initiative, Declaration on Regional Response to Malaria Control & Addressing Resistance to Antimalarial Medicines and the launch of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the 7th EAS. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also update the leaders about the Nalanda International University proposed to be set up in Bihar as an international centre of education established under the aegis of the East Asia Summit which will hold its first academic session in 2014.
ASEAN and India have seen wide-ranging cooperation in sectors like trade, science & technology, human resource development, space sciences, agriculture, new and renewable energy, information and communication technology.
ASEAN-India cooperation on antipiracy, terrorism and drug trafficking is mediated through the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ADMM+ and the Extended ASEAN Maritime Forum meetings. ASEAN-India have a Free Trade Agreement in Goods, which was signed in 2009 and which became fully operational in August 2011 with negotiations underway on the FTA on Services and Investments. ASEAN-India trade has reached USD 79.86 billion in 2011-2012.
Gateway House published an article titled ‘Myanmar in the ASEAN matrix:An opportunity for India?’ by D. Jesudas Bell.The author analyses the role of Myanmar as India’s gateway to the ASEAN.