Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Manila from November 16 to 18 for the 23rd ASEAN-India Summit and the 21st East Asia Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday.

Source: ANI via Saptashwa TV

MEA Secretary (East) Rudrendra Tandon briefed the media in New Delhi on November 12 on the Prime Minister's programme. The Philippines is chairing this year's ASEAN process, and the theme for the summit and related meetings is 'Navigating the Future'.

Tandon described the East Asia Summit as a unique ASEAN-led, leaders-led forum where the leaders of ASEAN member states and eight other participating countries discuss global security issues and matters of common concern in an informal setting, according to the ANI report of the briefing.

The Prime Minister's programme in Manila will include the main summit sessions as well as bilateral meetings with other leaders. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to host a dinner for visiting dignitaries, and an interaction between the Prime Minister and members of the Indian community in the Philippines is also being planned.

India is a strategic partner of the 11-member ASEAN grouping — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor-Leste. Tandon said India's relationship with ASEAN is an important pillar of its Act East Policy and that engagement extends beyond leaders' meetings to foreign ministers, senior officials and sectoral discussions.

The visit comes as ASEAN leaders gather in Manila under the Philippines' chairmanship, with trade, regional security and resilience in the face of rapid change high on the agenda. For India, the summits are a chance to deepen economic cooperation and people-to-people ties with Southeast Asia and to underline its commitment to a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.