Bangkok (VNA) – Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc shared other leaders’ view on the progress in the ASEAN-Indiastrategic partnership at a summit between the two sides in Bangkok on November3 morning.

The 16th ASEAN-India Summit, part of the ongoing35th ASEAN Summit and related summits, was attended by leaders of the 10 ASEANcountries and Indian PM Narendra Modi.

At the event, they welcomed India’s Act EastPolicy and active support for ASEAN’s central role and efforts to boostregional connectivity and build a community.

PM Modi affirmed India’s strong commitment toASEAN, stressing that the bloc is at the centre of his country’s Act EastPolicy and Indo-Pacific outlook, and India also strongly supports theIndo-Pacific outlook of ASEAN.

At the summit, the participants noted thateconomic relations between ASEAN and India have been growing well over the pastyears with bilateral trade hitting 80.8 billion USD and India’s directinvestment in ASEAN reaching 1.7 billion USD in 2018. Besides, cooperation hasbeen strengthened in multiple spheres, bringing about practical benefits to thepeoples and businesses of the two sides.

They agreed to continue promoting effectivecooperation in the spirit of the Delhi Declaration, adopted at the ASEAN-IndiaCommemorative Summit to mark the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-India dialoguerelations, particularly in the fields of trade-investment, marine cooperationand marine security ensuring, road and sea transport infrastructure connectionand development, innovation, digital economy, adaptation to the FourthIndustrial Revolution, people-to-people exchange, and tourism.

They also welcomed economic ministers’ decisionto launch review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement so as to tap intothe market of over 2 billion people of both sides.

The leaders affirmed that the two sides willcoordinate to speed up and finalise negotiations on the Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP) on schedule.

Additionally, ASEAN and India agreed to augmentefforts to promote dialogue, cooperation, trust building, and formation of andcompliance with standards of conduct, thus contributing to the maintenance ofpeace, security and stability in the region.

PM Modi shared deep concerns for the complexdevelopments in the East Sea, including the militarisation and other actionsthat run counter to international law of the sea. He emphasised India’sadvocacy for ASEAN’s stance, called for adherence to international law,including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and voicedsupport for efforts to build an efficient and effective Code of Conduct (COC)in the East Sea that is in line with international law.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared other participants’view on the developments in the ASEAN-India strategic partnership in the recentpast.

He highlighted that as both sides will enter anew phase of cooperation in 2020 with the Plan of Action for 2021-2025, theyshould further enhance fruitful connections in the areas of common concern andbenefits like sea-based economy, development of human resources to meetrequirements in the digital economy, and tourism.

The leader also underlined the importance ofmaintaining security and stability on seas and oceans, including the East Sea –an artery of shipping lanes of the world.

He repeated ASEAN’s principled stance on theEast Sea, stressing the need to step up dialogue, build trust, form and sharestandards of conduct, seriously and fully implement the Declaration on theConduct of Parties in the East Sea, and build an efficient and effective COCthat is in accordance with international law so as to keep the East Sea as awater body of peace, cooperation and prosperity./.