Thank you, Excellency Madame Theresa Lazaro, Co-Chair, for the floor

Excellencies and Colleagues,

Namaskar and Good morning

Madame Theresa Lazaro, allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. I express my deep appreciation to you for your leadership in facilitating deeper ASEAN-India cooperation as the Country Coordinator.

2. I congratulate Malaysia for the Chairmanship of ASEAN and extend full support for successful Chairmanship. I also thank Malaysia for the warm welcome and hospitality to me and my delegation.

3. We convey our deepest appreciation to Lao PDR for their successful Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2024.

4. I cordially welcome Timor Leste to this meeting and welcome the decision of ASEAN to have Timor-Leste as the 11th Member of ASEAN in October 2025. India will continue to support Timor Leste.

Excellencies,

5. I compliment ASEAN on the 10th anniversary of the ASEAN Community. Adoption of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN Community Vision 2045, at the recently held ASEAN Summit, is indeed significant.

6. India and ASEAN share civilisational bonds. For India, ASEAN is the cornerstone of its Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific vision. India firmly supports ASEAN Unity and ASEAN Centrality. The synergy between ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) augurs well for our region.

7. Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has attended 11 ASEAN-India Summits so far. At the last ASEAN-India Summit last year in Vientiane, Hon’ble Prime Minister said: "The 21st century is the Asian Century, a century for India and ASEAN countries.” Together, we can make that a reality. Last year, Hon’ble Prime Minister announced a 10-point plan for strengthening the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which we are implementing.

8. Our partnership is thriving on strong people-to-people linkages. The priority India attaches to ASEAN led mechanisms is reflected in increasing practical cooperation across political-security, economic and socio-cultural domains. With support from our ASEAN partners, we achieved 100 percent implementation of the ASEAN-India Plan of Action 2021-2025.

9. Based on the direction from Leaders at the previous ASEAN-India Summit, I hope we will be adopting a new ASEAN-India Plan of Action today for 2026-2030 to advance our cooperation further.

10. I extend my deep appreciation to all ASEAN Foreign Ministers for special efforts towards strengthening ASEAN-India relations through substantive and tangible cooperation. I am delighted to join all of you today in Kuala Lumpur, as we celebrate the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism.

I look forward to our discussions today.

Thank you, Excellencies.

Kuala Lampur
10 July 2025