ASEAN Summit: 10 ASEAN leaders arrive in India to flag off the commemorative-event

India, world’s largest democracy will be host to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit to attract investment and also show its might to the neighbouring China and also stamp its authority in the Indo-Pacific region.

The theme of the commemorative summit that is to take place in New Delhi on Thursday is “Shared Values, Common Destiny”—highlighting the commonalities between Asia’s third-largest economy and the economically vibrant bloc that groups together Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The first to arrive on Wednesday will be Vietnam prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. He will be followed by Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, Myanmar’s state counsellor Aung Saan Suu Kyi, Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsein Loong, Thailand’s prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Brunei sultan Hassan al Bolkiah, Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak and Laos’ prime minister Thongluin Sisolith. Indonesian president Joko Widodo will be the last to arrive, reported Live Mint.

Prime minister Narendra Modi is hosting all 10 Asean leaders for the commemorative summit on Thursday. But he will start bilateral meetings with all the visiting leaders starting Wednesday.

Under the leadership of PM Modi, India is making a concentrated effort to solidify and strengthen its position in the region and PM Modi has made it clear that his government is focussing on ‘Act East Policy’ and plenty of back-channel talks are going on. This year, India is also marking 15 years of summit-level engagement with Asean and five years of strategic partnership with the bloc. Significantly, Asean is marking 50 years of its establishment in 2017.

India views the Asean region as an economic partner, given its high growth rates as well as its approximately 600 million people as a market.

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“The South-East Asian region is economically very vibrant, we see a lot of potential… this is a vibrant economic commercial space for us. Already the Asean is our fourth largest trading partner and we are their seventh largest trading partner. Our investments in the last two decades has been $70 billion… so we see a lot of potential in engaging them further,” said Preeti Saran, secretary East, in the Indian foreign ministry, in remarks to reporters earlier this month.

The significance of ASEAN summit will lie on all participating countries agreeing upon and coming together for a unifying goal of prosperity and peace in the region and also combat ever-rising and global player China. The summit comes after PM Modi’s visit to Davos, where he talked about India’s financial polity in great detail.

On Thursday, the Asean leaders will first be hosted by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind to a luncheon banquet. This will be followed by a leaders’ retreat and then the plenary session of the India-Asean commemorative summit. At the end of the day, Modi will host a dinner for the visiting leaders. On Friday, all 10 Asean leaders will be chief guests at India’s 69th Republic Day celebrations.