• Source:JND
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to travel to Malaysia to participate in the meetings related to the ASEAN summit beginning Sunday due to scheduling issues, news agency PTI reported, citing people familiar with the matter, said on Wednesday. Earlier, it was learnt that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India at the meetings but later Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim confirmed that the Indian leader will attend the event virually due to ongoing Diwali celebrations in India. 

"Last night, I received a phone call from a colleague of the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Narendra Modi, to discuss efforts to strengthen Malaysia–India bilateral relations to a more strategic and comprehensive level. He informed me that he will attend virtually due to the ongoing Deepavali celebrations in India at that time," said Malaysian PM on X.

"I respect his decision and extended my greetings for a happy Deepavali to him and the entire people of India," he added.

Later, PM Modi also confirmed his virual attendance at the summit in a tweet.

 

No PM Modi-Trump meeting this year

It means there would be no meeting possible with US President Donald Trump, as it was the only occasion when the two leaders would be attending the same event. Moreover, the QUAD Summit, which is slated to be held in India later this year, is unlikely to see a big event.

The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur from October 26 to 28. There is no official word on India's level of participation in the deliberations related to the summit. 

The prime minister has led the Indian delegations at the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit in the last few years.

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Malaysia has invited US President Donald Trump as well as leaders of several countries which are the dialogue partners of ASEAN. Trump is set to travel to Kuala Lumpur on October 26 on a two-day trip.

ASEAN Summit

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. The ties were elevated to a strategic partnership in 2012.

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The 10 member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. The two-way relations between India and ASEAN have been on a significant upswing in the last few years, with focus being on boosting cooperation in the areas of trade and investment as well as security and defence.

According to the initial plan, a visit by PM Modi to Cambodia, along with Malaysia, was being contemplated. However, as he is not travelling to Malaysia, the planned trip to Cambodia has been postponed, the people cited above said.

(With inputs from agency)

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