Context: Recently, India participated in the 6th roundtable meeting of the ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT). ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Background

• AINTT was established to provide policy inputs to India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries on future directions of their cooperation.
• The theme of the 6th Round Table of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT) was 'ASEAN-India: Strengthening Partnership in the Post COVID Era'.

The Round Table had various thematic sessions such as:

• Changing Landscape of Global Order and ASEAN-India relations in the post Covid-19 Era;
• Emerging Value Chains: Opportunities for ASEAN and India in the post Covid-19 Era;
• New Normal and Significance of 4IR on ASEAN-India Partnership and Future Collaborations; and
• ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI): Complementarities and Cooperation

Issues raised by India

• The individual behaviour of many states and old-styled multilateral organisations prevented a collective response to global challenges in a contemporary world.
• It highlighted the difficulties that were hindering strong response to deal with the pandemic.

Suggestions provided by India

• India has urged that greater cooperation is required to counter challenges such as the pandemic and called for “collective solutions”.
• The ASEAN countries need to look beyond “orthodoxies” in trade, politics and security to find solution to the challenges.
• It called for the concept of strategic autonomy that was once fashionable in a unipolar world has now assumed relevance in terms of global supply chains.

About About ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT)

• It was established at the 7th ASEAN-India Summit in Thailand in 2009.
• It aims to provide policy inputs to Governments on future direction of cooperation.
• The forum serves as a high quality research platform and provides long-term perspectives to further strengthen ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership.