India's vision of Indo-Pacific premised upon ASEAN centrality: Jaishankar

New Delhi [India], April 19 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said India's vision of Indo-Pacific as a free, open and inclusive region, underpinned by international law and a rules-based order, is premised upon ASEAN "centrality and the common pursuit of progress and prosperity".
Jaishankar, who spoke at the UNSC meeting chaired by Vietnam on regional and sub-regional organizations, said India has traditionally maintained close and friendly cooperation with regional organisations.
He asserted that enhanced cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations will be an "important factor in successfully addressing contemporary challenges and conflicts".
"The world order that we built following the Second World War is under serious stress. The nature of threats faced by member states when the United Nations was founded 75 years has also changed," Jaishankar said.
The minister, who addressed the meeting virtually, said that in today's globalized world terrorism, radicalization, drug trafficking and organised crime have a growing salience and added that security implications of new technologies cannot be disregarded, he added.
"We think that enhanced cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations will be an important factor in successfully addressing contemporary challenges and conflicts. In this context, a rational evaluation of cooperation between the UN and the regional and sub-organizations during the last 75 years will provide a good basis for our future engagements," he said.
Jaishankar said that India's relationship with ASEAN is a key pillar of its foreign policy and the foundation of its Act East Policy.
"India has traditionally maintained close and friendly cooperation with regional organizations. India's vision of the Indo-Pacific as a free, open and inclusive region, underpinned by international law and a rules-based order, is premised upon ASEAN centrality and the common pursuit of progress and prosperity," he said.
India, the minister said, remains committed to further building on the momentum of regional cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework and make the organization stronger, vibrant, and more effective and result-oriented.
"Our relationship with Africa spans centuries, and we have had close cooperation with the African Union, especially for development partnership initiatives. In addition to our large peacekeeping presence in Africa, India has been deeply committed to peacebuilding and sustaining peace through large UN peace keeping operations in Africa," he added. (ANI)