Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said enhancing all kinds of connectivity, including in social, digital and financial spheres, with the 10-nation ASEAN grouping is a major priority for India. He made the remarks at a virtual summit between India and the ASEAN. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is considered one of the most influential groupings in the region, and India and several other countries including the US, China, Japan and Australia are its dialogue partners. The summit took place amid China’s aggressive behaviour in the disputed South China Sea as well as in eastern Ladakh. A number of ASEAN countries have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The ties between India and ASEAN have been on an upswing in the last few years with focus being on ramping up cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence. The ASEAN region along with India together comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, which is one fourth of the global population and their combined GDP has been estimated at over USD 3.8 trillion.

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.

Road Ahead

• From the last few years India and ASEAN have come a long way their relationship has grown from strength to strength, there are still alot more need to done and a lot has change in the region from last few years as well what we need to focus on is economy and connectivity. Lets not forget that the ASEAN countries can't step away from because their economies are integrated and they are extremely close to China so there is lot in common there for ASEAN countries and China, Lets not also forget that the Trump administration had withdrawn from that region there by providing a larger space for the Chinese in this particular region but that could change with the change in the guard of the US and with Quad taking an extremely active role especially in the Indo-Pacific, what we need to going forward is ensure that the work on our pending project and deliever them on time and we need to find new ways to integrate with ASEAN.