THE FORUM

THE FORUM: ASEAN-India Forum
Celebrating 25 years of ASEAN-India Partnership

The ASEAN-India Forum is the first in the series of gatherings and events for ambassadors from different embassies in the Philippines with their partner foundations and organizations.

In each forum, one embassy will be featured. The ambassador and the leaders of their partner foundations and organizations will speak about their own country and government, their relationship to the Philippines and their visions, projects and plans that aim to create a better community for both their people and the Filipinos.

The program provides a concrete perspective of the global community. It aims to inform both the national and international audience about the inter-relationship of different countries in terms of economy, politics, history, culture and the arts. It gives the audience a better and deeper understanding of international relationship between the Philippines and other nations.

THE FORUM will also be aired as a public affairs TV program on NET25 every Sunday from 9:00PM to 10:00PM. The program will also be promoted in all other media portals of EBC including Radyo Agila 1062 and www.eaglenews.ph.

Background

India and the ASEAN are home to 1.8 billion people and have an economic size of US$ 3.8 trillion and a substantial share of world resources, economic and otherwise. Aside from sharing maritime boundaries, ASEAN-India relations are firmly embedded in culture, commerce and connectivity. India’s ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP), in force for more than two decades has been transformed into a more serious ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP) with ASEAN at its core.

The ASEAN-India relations have gained constant momentum throughout this period. Starting as a sectoral partner of ASEAN in 1992, India became a dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1996, a summit-level partner in 2002, and a strategic partner in 2012. The year 2017 marks the 25 years of ASEAN-India dialogue partnership, 15 years of summit-level interaction and 5 years of strategic partnership.

There is a need to build strong working relations, converge towards connectivity development issues, and protect the global trading system on which both ASEAN and India so heavily depend. The Philippines, being an important member state of ASEAN, has been playing a key role in building a strong partnership between ASEAN and India.

To commemorate the 25 years of ASEAN-India partnership, ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) along with ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) of New Era University, ASEAN-India Business Council (AIBC) and Eagle Broadcasting Corporation, has organized the first ever ASEAN-India Forum in Manila on 21 November 2017. The forum aims to come up with a lively exchange of experience and ideas that would help further strengthen the partnership between India and the ASEAN.