Year 2022 declared as ASEAN-India Friendship year.

• The year 2022 has been declared as the ASEAN-India Friendship year, as ASEAN and India commemorate 30 years of partnership. As a part of this programme, Indian media delegation is on a visit to Singapore and Cambodia under the ASEAN-INDIA Media exchange programme from 8th November to 13th November.
• On the first leg of the visit the delegation visited the Singapore-India Chambers of Commerce and Industries (SICCI) and had an exchange of thoughts on topics such as India-Singapore relations with a specific focus on business-friendly policies and the expectations of business community in Singapore from India.
• After the first leg of visit, the delegation has reached Cambodia.
• As a precursor to the visit of the Vice President of India to Cambodia for the ASEAN Summit, the delegation visited the Angkor Vat and Ta Prohm temple complexes and witnessed the prominent role played by the Government of India and the Archeological Survey of India in restoring these UNESCO World Heritage sites there. Vice President would be inaugurating the newly restored portions of the Ta Prohm temple complex during the visit.

About ASEAN

• It is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation.
• It was established in August 1967 in Bangkok,Thailand with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the founding fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
• Its chairmanship rotates annually,based on the alphabetical order of the English names of Member States.
• ASEAN countries have a total population of 650 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 2.8 trillion.It is India’s 4^th largest trading partner with about USD 86.9 billion in trade.

About ASEAN-India:

• ASEAN, a 10-nation grouping, is considered one of the most influential groupings in Southeast Asia.
• India and several other countries, including the US, China, Japan and Australia, are its dialogue partners.
• The ASEAN-India dialogue relations started with the establishment of a sectoral partnership in 1992.
• This graduated to full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and summit-level partnership in 2002.
• Traditionally the basis of India-ASEAN tieshas been trade and people-to-people ties due to shared historical and cultural roots, a more recent and urgent area of convergence has been balancing China’s rise.
  • BothIndia and ASEAN aim to establish a rules-based security architecture for peaceful development in the region, in contrast to China’s aggressive policies.