Vientiane [Laos], October 11 : Emphasising New Delhi's long-standing relationship with ASEAN nations, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India will contribute USD 5 million towards the joint cooperative activities for the development of tourism in the region.
Adressing a special briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Laos, Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar, informed that year 2025 will be celebrated as the year of the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism
All these initiatives were included in a 10-point special plan announced by PM Modi on Thursday in order to strengthen the connectivity and resilience of ASEAN nations with India.
Notably, this year also marks a decade of India's Act East Policy.
The MEA Secy said that the ASEAN nations had a positive assessment towards India's role in the development of the digital public infrastructure as well as India's collaboration in many sectors under India's Act East Policy.
"ASEAN leaders and the Prime Minister reviewed our relations. The comprehensive relations that we have with ASEAN. ASEAN leaders very positively appraised our cooperation in many areas of diverse collaboration as a result of India's Act East policy and they also appraised very positively India's leadership role in digital public infrastructure and the fact that ASEAN countries can benefit significantly from this," Mazumdar said.
"The Prime Minister announced a 10-point special plan to strengthen connectivity and resilience with ASEAN. These involve a wide variety of initiatives that India is taking with ASEAN. They include, for example, celebrating next year as the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism. The ASEAN leaders all universally welcomed this as a very positive development. It was also announced that India will contribute five million dollars towards joint cooperative activities in this area. To mark this decade of Act East policy, several people-to-people and people-centric initiatives were announced," he added.
The MEA Secretary said that PM Modi's visit to the 21st ASEAN-India Summit as well as the 19th East Asia Summit holds a major significance as it shows India's focus as well as commitment to the region, and the East Asia Process.
"The Prime Minister attended the 21st ASEAN-India Summit and the 19th East Asia Summit. These are especially significant this year because we marked the 10th year of the Prime Minister's Act East Policy this year. As he commented during his interactions, this is the 11th time that he's attended these events and shows India's great focus as well as our commitment to both ASEAN and the East Asia Process," he stated.
He also specified that the East Asia Summit only had a Chair statement but no Leaders' statement, as there were some differences about its formulation.
"There was only a chair statement at the East Asia Summit and no leaders' statement. There were some differences about some of the formulations that were discussed. I believe those differences were irreconcilable and therefore we didn't have a leaders' statement," Mazumdar said.
Prime Minister Modi was on a two-day visit to Laos from October 10-11 at the invitation of Laos counterpart Sonexay Siphandone. He attended the 21st ASEAN-India summit and the 18th East Asia Summit
The Prime Minister also held bilateral meetings with leaders from Laos, Thailand, and New Zealand.
He also met with other top leaders like South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.