Context: Recently, India and ASEAN countries said they would explore ways to increase trade between them despite India’s exit from the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.

• The summit focused on measures to recover from the economic turmoil triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and ways to further broad-base strategic ties.

Key Points

• The RCEP is expected to be signed between China, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and 10 Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) nations.
• It is expected that they would leave in a clause allowing India to rejoin at a later date.
• The discussions covered regional and international issues of common interest and concern, including the South China Sea and terrorism.
• All the countries stressed the importance of a rules-based order in the region including through upholding adherence to international law, especially the UNCLOS.
• The leaders affirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, safety and security in the South China Sea and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.

India’s Stance on the RCEP

• PM of India had told the RCEP summit that India was walking out of the Free Trade Agreement after negotiations for more than six years, as it did not address India’s concerns about being flooded by goods from China, trade deficits and need to protect its agricultural and dairy sectors. The remainder of the RCEP countries then continued with the talks minus India, and have decided to sign the FTA, which will encompass about 30% of global trade, on Sunday. However, they are expected to leave in a clause allowing India to rejoin at a later date.
• Experts have warned that once the FTA is adopted, trade between RCEP nations will assume primacy, which could affect trade ties with other countries including India.

ASEAN-India

• The Prime Minister of India highlighted India’s “Indo-Pacific policy” as an area of convergence for ASEAN and India.
• He noted that a cohesive, responsive and prosperous ASEAN is central to India’s Indo-Pacific vision and contributes to Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR).
• He underscored the importance of strengthening convergence between India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific, to ensure a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
• He also invited the ASEAN countries to cooperate on various pillars of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI).
• He announced a $1 million contribution to the ASEAN COVID-19 recovery fund.

Additional Information
ASEAN

ASEAN is India’s fourth-largest trading partner with about $86.9 Bn in trade between India and the ten ASEAN nations: 

• It comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
• However, experts have warned that once the FTA is adopted, trade between RCEP nations will assume primacy, which could affect trade ties with other countries including India.

Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership

• It is a grouping of the 10 countries of ASEAN with Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India, China and Japan.
• RCEP will constitute more than 40 per cent of the global population and almost half of the world's economy.
• It consists of three of the six largest economies of the world, especially, the two  fastest growing large economies namely India and China.