• 10th edition of Delhi Dialogue held in New Delhi.
• The theme of this year’s Delhi Dialogue is ‘Strengthening India-ASEAN Maritime Co-operation

Background:

• Delhi Dialogue is a premier annual track event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and ASEAN.
• Delhi Dialogue X has been organized in partnership with Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).
• Political leadership, policy makers, senior officials, diplomats, business leaders, think-tanks and academicians from India and ASEAN Member States will participate in the discussions.
• Will discuss the, Role of North East in Act East, Forging Connectivity with ASEAN, Strengthening Socio-Cultural Links, and India-ASEAN Partnership and Emerging Global Order, Maritime Cooperation, A New Framework for India-ASEAN Partnership, Development Cooperation; and ASEAN-India Trade, Investment and Technology.
• The four parallel sessions will discuss: Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs and Regional Development; e-Commerce and Digital Connectivity; Tourism Cooperation; and Building Smart Cities.

ASEAN

• It is an regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries that promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration amongst its members.
• ASEAN itself was created on 1967 by ASEAN Declaration. With secretariat located in Jakarta.
• The creation of ASEAN was motivated by a common fear of communism.
• ASEAN Plus Three was the first of attempts for further integration to improve existing ties with China, Japan, and South Korea. This was followed by the even larger East Asia Summit (EAS), which included ASEAN Plus Three as well as India, Australia, and New Zealand , that is ASEAN plus Six.
• This group acted as a prerequisite for the planned East Asia Community which was supposedly patterned after the now-defunct European Community.

ASEAN- India Relations

• India’s relationship with ASEAN is a key pillar of our foreign policy and the foundation of our Act East Policy.
• India and ASEAN are observing 25 years of their Dialogue Partnership, 15 years of Summit Level interaction and 5 years of Strategic Partnership.
• As a reflection of the interest of ASEAN and India to intensify their engagement, the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity, which sets out the roadmap for long-term ASEAN-India engagement, was signed.
• The 3rd Plan Of Action-POA (2016-20) was adopted by the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting held in August 2015.
• Furthermore, ASEAN and India have identified priority areas for the period of 2016-2018 and are already implementing activities under it, which would contribute towards successful implementation of the 2016-2020 Plan of Action.
• India’s partnership with ASEAN seeks to craft a response that relies on coordination, cooperation and sharing of experiences at multiple levels which includes traditional and non-traditional challenges, politico-security cooperation is a key and an emerging pillar of our relationship.

Defence:

• The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN.
• The ADMM+ brings together Defence Ministers from the 10 ASEAN nations plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States on a biannual basis.

Financial co-operations

ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund:

At the 7th ASEAN-India Summit in 2009, India announced a contribution of US$ 50 million to the ASEAN-India Fund, to support implementation of the ASEAN-India Plans of Action, which envisage cooperation in a range of sectors in the political, economic and socio-cultural spheres for deepening and intensifying ASEAN-India cooperation.

ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund:

India announced the setting up of an ASEAN-India Science & Technology Development Fund with a US$ 1 million contribution from India to promote joint collaborative R&D research projects in Science & Technology

ASEAN-India Green Fund: India announced the setting up of an ASEAN-India Green Fund with an initial contribution of US$ 5 million from India, to support collaboration activities relating to environment and climate change.

Some of the areas identified for collaboration under the Fund are climate change, energy efficiency, clean technologies, renewable energy, biodiversity conservation and environmental education.

Science & Tech:

• In the S&T field, we have projects such as ASEAN-India S&T Digital Library, ASEAN-India Virtual Institute for Intellectual Property, ASEAN-India Collaborative Project on S&T for Combating Malaria ASEAN-India Programme on Quality Systems in Manufacturing, ASEAN-India Collaborative R&D Project on Mari culture, Bio-mining and Bioremediation Technologies etc.
• In Agriculture, we are cooperating with ASEAN by way of projects such as Exchange of Farmers, ASEAN-India Fellowships for Higher Agricultural Education in India and ASEAN, Exchange of Agriculture Scientists, Empowerment of Women through Cooperatives, Training Course on Organic Certification for Fruits and Vegetables etc.