Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a 3 day visit to Thailand to attend the ASEAN – India, East Asia and RCEP Summits
The Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi has reached Thailand today, i.e., Saturday, November 2, 2019 to participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – India Summit, East Asia Summit and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit.
The 3-day visit is aimed at strengthening the regional ties in key areas such as trade, maritime security and connectivity. Today, he would address the Indian community living in Bangkok in an event tiled, “Sawasdee PM Modi”. Sawasdee is the word which is used by Thai people for greetings and goodbye. It is derived from Sanskrit word ‘Svasti’ which means ‘well-being’.
He would also release a special coin commemorating the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. In addition, he will release a Thai translation of Tamil classic – Tirukkural. The Tirukkural is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 couplets or Kurals. The text is divided into 3 books, each with aphoristic teachings on virtue, wealth and love.
While landing in Bangkok, Narendra Modi tweeted, “Reached Thailand to take part in the ASEAN related Summits including the India-ASEAN Summit and other programmes. I look forward to interacting with world leaders as well as Thailand’s dynamic Indian community during this visit.”
On November 3, 2019, PM Modi will co-chair the 16th ASEAN-India summit alongside the Prime Minister of Thailand – Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Addressing the media, the Ministry of External Affairs, India said, “The ASEAN-related summits are an integral part of our diplomatic calendar. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s seventh ASEAN-India summit and sixth East Asia Summit.”
During the Summit, the leaders will discuss the current scenario and the progress made in the relationship between India and ASEAN member countries. There are multiple initiatives that are being currently implemented in this regard such as New Delhi’s commitment to offering 1,000 Ph.D. scholarships to ASEAN students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). This initiative has a budget of Rs. 300 crores and is the largest human resource initiative for ASEAN member countries by India and for any of ASEAN’s dialogue partner.
The next day, Modi will attend a gala lunch hosted by Prayut Chan-o-cha for the leaders of East Asian countries participating in the East Asia Summit. The gala lunch will serve as a platform where the East Asian leaders will exchange views on progressing the internal sustainable agenda in line with the theme chosen by Thailand – “Advancing Partnerships for Sustainability”.
Post lunch, PM Modi will attend the 14th East Asia Summit where the leaders will discuss upon the future course of action of East Asia cooperation and regional and international issues.
Most importantly, Modi will take part in the RCEP Summit, where the leaders of the member countries will review the state of negotiations which are ongoing in Bangkok currently and will continue over the next few days.
The RCEP is a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the 10 member states of the ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and its 6 FTA partners (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand). The RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. It is expected to be the world’s largest economic bloc, covering nearly half of the global economy.
During the upcoming RCEP talks, the FTA is likely to bring down the import duties to zero on most of the agricultural commodities. For the records, the deal has been criticised by Indian farmers as their livelihood will be impacted by it. The farmers have urged the Government of India to withdraw from the deal.
Talking about the farmer’s issue, the MEA said, “There are some critical issues still outstanding and efforts are being made to resolve them to provide a fair and transparent trading environment. These issues are extremely important for our economy and the livelihood of our people. It is, therefore, imperative that these issues are resolved satisfactorily. India remains engaged to find resolutions of these issues.”
Besides, PM Modi will be holding several bilateral meetings with leaders of various Asian nations during his visit. He will return to India on November 4, 2019.
