PM Modi Heads to Laos for ASEAN India and East Asia Summits

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Laos. During this visit, he would attend the 21st ASEAN-India Summit and 19th East Asia Summit. He will be at the behest of the prime minister of Laos, Sonexay Siphandone, who heads ASEAN.

Modi is likely to be in talks with leaders from member nations ASEAN as part of his visit. Showing importance, these nations lie at the very heart of the Act East policy of India, and this visit finds resonance with the Indo-Pacific Vision of New Delhi, particularly in the framework of the initiative SAGAR, or Security and Growth for All in the Region.

The ASEAN-India Summit, is aimed at reviewing the bilateral relationship with nations through their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and examining future opportunities for cooperation, said a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. The East Asia Summit is among the premier platforms for leaders of participating countries to address major regional issues as well as strategic trust among participating countries, including India.

"I have always spoken on the central role for ASEAN and a regional perspective", PM Modi said. In the last decade, India has increasingly been realizing the necessity of a strong united ASEAN in the evolving dynamics of the Indo-Pacific. Last year, he visited Jakarta just days before hosting the G20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi.

It is in this context that the visit to Indonesia in late September 2023, for the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit, became important to reinforce engagement with Southeast Asian nations and consolidate India's Indo-Pacific vision within the present geopolitical structure. These summits are the first ASEAN-India summits since the upgrading of their bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022, which open up opportunities for further cooperation.