At the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of 10 Asean nations with India in New Delhi, Jaishankar said the partnership between the two sides was successfully forged and provided a foundation for the economic and strategic architecture of the Indo-Pacific region, All India Radio reported.

He noted that Asean stands as a beacon of regionalism, multilateralism and globalization and stressed that India fully supports a strong, unified and prosperous grouping.

According to the incumbent, a better connected India and Asean would be well positioned to promote decentralized globalization and the resilient and reliable supply chains needed by the international community.

The Indian Foreign Minister thanked Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan for her strong support and cooperation in furthering the Asean-India Strategic Partnership and also congratulated Cambodia on its chairmanship of Asean.

The regional bloc and India’s dialogue relations began in 1992 with the establishment of a sectoral partnership, which was upgraded to full dialogue in December 1995, had Summit level since 2002 and ties were upgraded to strategic partnership in 2012.

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