PM Modi to join ASEAN-India Summit in Malaysia virtually

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday, October 22, informed his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim, that he would join the ASEAN-India Summit virtually in Malaysia next week. The message was conveyed to the Malaysian PM during a phone call on Thursday.

“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,” Modi said in a post on X.

“Look forward to joining the ASEAN-India Summit virtually, and to further deepening of the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Modi said.

The ASEAN meetings are scheduled from October 26-28.

Malaysia has invited US President Donald Trump as well as leaders of several countries which are the dialogue partners of the ASEAN grouping.

Trump is set to travel to Kuala Lumpur on October 26 on a two-day trip.

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.

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.