Jaishankar Welcomes Singapore Counterpart Ahead Of ASEAN-India FMs Meet

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Wednesday welcomed his Singapore counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan, ahead of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Taking to Twitter, Jaishnakar said that India and Singapore will co-chair the ASEAN-India meeting and take forward the bilateral agenda of the two countries.
“Warm welcome to my friend FM @VivianBala of Singapore. Will have the ASEAN-India co-chair meeting and take forward our bilateral agenda,” Jaishankar tweeted.

India will host the Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (SAIFMM) on 16-17 June 2022 to mark the 30th anniversary of our dialogue relations and the 10th anniversary of our Strategic Partnership with ASEAN.

Jaishankar and Vivian Balakrishnan, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Singapore, India’s Country Coordinator, will co-chair the meeting.

Foreign Ministers of other ASEAN Member State and ASEAN Secretary-General will participate in the SAIFMM. The year 2022 has been designated as ASEAN-India Friendship Year.

ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of sectoral partnership in 1992 which graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995, Summit level Partnership in 2002, and Strategic partnership in 2012.

“Today, ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership stands on a strong foundation. ASEAN is central to India’s Act East Policy and its vision for the wider Indo-Pacific. This multi-faceted partnership encompasses many sectoral dialogue mechanisms and working groups that meet regularly at various levels and include annual Summit, Ministerial and Senior Officials’ meetings. The ongoing India-ASEAN collaboration is guided by the Plan of Action 2021-2025 which was adopted in 2020,” the MEA said in an earlier statement.

While ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM), hosted by ASEAN Chair, is an annual event, the SAIFMM would be the first ASEAN-India FMM to be hosted by India in New Delhi. The SAIFMM will be preceded by 24th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting on 15 June 2022.

The SAIFMM will be accompanied by the 12th edition of Delhi Dialogue, a premier Track 1.5 Dialogue in ASEAN-India calendar, which will be hosted by India on June 16-17.

The theme of DD-XII is Building Bridges in the Indo-Pacific. The Ministerial Session of DD-XII will be attended by EAM and the ASEAN Ministers. (ANI)