Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not visit Malaysia for the ASEAN summit meetings starting Sunday due to scheduling constraints, but will address the event virtually. It is understood that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India at the discussions, PTI has reported.
The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit is scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur from October 26 to 28. There has been no official confirmation yet on India’s level of participation in the summit-related events.
PM Modi to virtually address ASEAN Summit
Sources indicated that India has informed Malaysia that Jaishankar will lead its delegation at the ASEAN meetings. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim posted on X that he had a conversation with Modi on phone and was informed that the Indian PM will address the summit virtually. This was also confirmed by PM Modi himself in a post on X.
"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. India remains an important partner for Malaysia in the fields of trade and investment, in addition to close cooperation in the sectors of technology, education, and regional security," he wrote in the post.
"We also touched on the organization of the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur at the end of this month. He informed me that he will attend virtually due to the ongoing Deepawali celebrations in India at that time," Ibrahim added.
No Modi-Trump meeting this year
Since PM Modi is skipping the ASEAN Summit, there will not be any meeting this year between him and US President Donald Trump who will be attending the event in Kuala Lumpur. The prime minister's diplomatic schedule will focus on the G20 Summit in South Africa in November, which Trump will is not attending. There is, as of now, no clarity on the scheduling of the QUAD Summit, which India is slated to host later this year.
In recent years, Modi has personally led the Indian delegations at both the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit. Malaysia has invited several global leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who is expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on October 26 for a two-day visit.
The ASEAN-India dialogue partnership began in 1992 as a sectoral partnership, expanded into a full dialogue partnership in December 1995, and reached the summit level in 2002. The relationship was elevated to a strategic partnership in 2012.
ASEAN comprises ten member countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
India's relations with ASEAN have strengthened notably in recent years, with growing cooperation in trade, investment, security, and defence.
Originally, Modi’s visit to Cambodia was planned alongside the Malaysia trip, but with the Malaysia leg now cancelled, the Cambodia visit has been postponed, sources said.
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