India, ASEAN adopt plan of action for next five years

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday co-chaired the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting with his Thailand counterpart Don Pramudwinai, during which the new ASEAN-India plan of action for next five years was adopted.

The meeting was held virtually and saw the participation of Foreign Ministers of the 10 ASEAN Member States and India, according to Ministry of External Affairs' statement.

The ministers discussed ways to strengthen cooperation to fight COVID-19 pandemic and exchanged views on important regional and international developments, the statement said.

During the meeting the status of the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership in several areas including maritime cooperation, connectivity was reviewed.

"The meeting reviewed the status of ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership in several areas including maritime cooperation, connectivity, education & capacity building and people-to-people contacts. It reviewed the progress in implementation of the ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2016-2020)... The new ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025) was adopted at the meeting," it said.

"The meeting also reviewed the preparations for the upcoming 17th ASEAN-India Summit and also the progress in the implementation of key decisions of the Leaders of ASEAN Member States (AMS) and India arrived at the 16th ASEAN-India Summit held in Bangkok in November 2019 and the previous Summits," it added.

( With inputs from ANI )