India, ASEAN review strategic ties; adopt new five-year plan of action

India and 10-nation ASEAN on Saturday carried out a comprehensive review of ir strategic partnership in a range of areas, including maritime cooperation, and opted a new five-year plan of action to furr boost overall ties.

two sides also exchanged views on important regional and international developments and discussed ways to strengn cooperation to fight COVID-19 pandemic, at an ASEAN-India virtual meeting, officials said.

It was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai. Foreign ministers of all ASEAN member countries attend meeting, Ministry of External Affairs said.

10-nation Association of Souast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is considered one of most influential groupings in region, and India and several or countries including US, China, Japan and Australia are its dialogue partners.

meeting took place at a time when China is expanding its military aggressiveness in South China Sea and is locked in a bitter border row with India in eastern Lakh. It is t immediately kwn wher se issues figured in deliberations or t. A number of ASEAN member countries are engd in territorial disputes with Beijing in South China Sea.

" meeting reviewed status of ASEAN-India strategic partnership in several areas including maritime cooperation, connectivity, education & capacity building and people-to-people contacts," MEA said.

It said meeting also reviewed progress in implementation of ASEAN-India plan of action (2016-2020) and opted a new plan of action for next five years. plan of action provides for deepening cooperation in an array of areas including tre, investment and people-to-people contact.

" meeting also reviewed preparations for upcoming 17th ASEAN-India summit and also progress in implementation of key decisions of leers of ASEAN member states and India arrived at 16th ASEAN-India Summit held in Bangkok in vember 2019 and previous summits," MEA said.

It said ministers discussed ways to strengn cooperation to fight COVID-19 pandemic and exchanged views on important regional and international developments. ties between India and ASEAN have been on an upswing.

ASEAN region along with India toger comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, which is one-fourth of global population, and ir combined GDP has been estimated at over USD 3.8 trillion. Investment from ASEAN to Indian has been over USD 70 billion in last 17 years accounting for more than 17 per cent of India's total FDI.

ASEAN member countries are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.