New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day visit to Laos on Thursday where he is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the prime minister of Lao PDR and other leaders on the margins of two key summits he is slated to attend in Vientiane on October 10-11.
PM Modi's statement
"Today, I am embarking on a two-day visit to Vientiane, Lao PDR at the invitation of Prime Minister Mr. Sonexay Siphandone to participate in the 21st ASEAN-India and the 19th East Asia Summit," PM Modi said in a statement released just before his departure.
He emphasised that this year India-Laos marked a decade of Act East Policy. "I will join the ASEAN leaders to review progress in our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and chart the future direction of our cooperation," he said.
"The East Asia Summit will provide an opportunity to deliberate on the challenges to peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. We share close cultural and civilisational ties with the region, including with Lao PDR, which are enriched by shared heritage of Buddhism and Ramayana. I look forward to my meetings with the Lao PDR leadership to further strengthen our bilateral ties. I am confident that this visit will further deepen our engagement with ASEAN countries," he added.
The external affairs ministry said that the Prime Minister will attend the 21st ASEAN-India Summit and the 19th East Asia Summit in Lao PDR, the current Chair of the 10-nation grouping. "We attach great significance to all ASEAN-related mechanisms. This will be PM's tenth attendance at an ASEAN-India Summit," Secretary (East) in the MEA, Jaideep Mazumdar said at a briefing here.
In 2023, Modi had made efforts to be there for the ASEAN-India Summit in Jakarta before the G20 Summit in New Delhi, he added. The Summit in Vientiane will review the progress in India-ASEAN ties and "chart the future direction of our relationship", Mazumdar said. At the invitation of Sonexay Siphandone, Prime Minister of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Modi will visit Vientiane on October 10-11, he said.
He will have a bilateral meeting with Siphandone, the Secretary (East) said.
India has "close, friendly, historical and civilisational relationship" with Lao PDR, which includes a whole host of different areas, such as restoration of cultural sites, capacity building, and power projects, he added.
PM Modi to hold multiple bilateral meetings
When asked if Modi will also have bilateral meetings with leaders of other countries, Mazumdar said, "As is normal and usual, on the margins of international conferences and meetings, the prime minister will have bilateral meetings with a number of leaders.These are all in the works, and you will get to hear of them as they happen."
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded in 1967.
The member States are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Brunei Darussalam.
Why is PM Modi's visit significant?
2024 marks a decade of India's Act East Policy and during this decade, the engagements have grown from stronger people-to-people connections to robust cooperation in trade and investment, defence and security, and connectivity including fin-tech, heritage conservation and capacity building. It also marks important anniversaries of India's diplomatic relations with several countries in the region like Brunei, Philippines and Singapore.
"Connectivity is a very important pillar of our engagement with ASEAN. As much as 20 per cent of the Indian diaspora worldwide live in ASEAN countries. We have direct flights with seven ASEAN countries and we expect that perhaps by the end of the year, we will have flight connectivity with two more ASEAN countries. ASEAN is also among our top trade and investment partners of India,” says Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East, MEA, on Wednesday.
India has also been one of the first responders to disaster occurrences in the region from the Indian Ocean Tsunami to Typhoon Yagi, during which it provided crucial assistance to countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos. India has also lined up cooperative activities with its ASEAN partners in the fields of capacity building, scholarships, building collaborative R&D and more.
Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States will take part in the East Asia Summit, while Timor-Leste has been appointed as an observer. At the 20th ASEAN-India Summit in Jakarta last year, Prime Minister Modi had announced India's decision to open a Resident Mission in Dili, Timor Leste, which was recently operationalised.
(With inputs from agency)
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