PM Narendra Modi to attend ASEAN summit virtually, EAM Jaishankar to represent India

PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate virtually in the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, scheduled from October 26 to 28. The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, reportedly, will lead India’s delegation at the meetings.

"Had a warm conversation with my dear friend, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia. Congratulated him on Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and conveyed best wishes for the success of upcoming Summits. Look forward to joining the ASEAN-India Summit virtually, and to further deepening of the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," tweeted PM Modi.

India is learnt to have conveyed to Malaysia that Jaishankar will represent India at the ASEAN meetings, PTI reported citing sources familiar with the matter.

While the official details of New Delhi's participation have not been released, there remains a possibility that PM Modi could join the ASEAN-India summit virtually. The PM has led the Indian delegations at the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit in the last few years.

The ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of a sectoral partnership in 1992. This graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and summit level partnership in 2002. The ties were elevated to a strategic partnership in 2012.

The 10 member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Malaysia has invited US President Donald Trump as well as leaders of several countries which are the dialogue partners of the ASEAN. Trump is set to travel to Kuala Lumpur on October 26 on a two-day trip. The two-way relations between India and ASEAN have been on a significant upswing in the last few years with focus being on boosting cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence.