The 18th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers (AEM) Consultations were held virtually on 14th September.
Highlights:
The economic ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries attended the meeting
Among different things, the ministers actively mentioned the early commencement of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Review.
The Ministers mentioned the status of the scoping exercise of the review and resolved to complete the method expeditiously to make the agreement trade facilitative, user-friendly with modern and streamlined customs and regulatory procedures.
China has applied to join the Asia-Pacific Free Trade grouping of 11-nation in a bid to increase its influence over international policies.
Application was submitted by the Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, to the Trade Minister of New Zealand as a representative of Comprehensive & Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP) or the Asia-Pacific free Trade grouping.
CPTPP was originally the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It was a group promoted by former President Barack Obama as part of USAs increasing emphasis on its relations with Asia.
China was not included in the initial group.
Donald Trump had pulled out the group in 2017 and the current President of US Joe Biden has not yet re-joined the group.
US President Joe Biden administration has announced a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-pacific. Security partnership was done between Australia, United Kingdom and United States.
This security grouping called AUKUS, will focus towards advancing strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
Officials noted that, the trilateral grouping was security focused and is different but complementary to arrangements like the Quad.
The central feature of this partnership comprises of a trilateral 18-month effort in order to help Australia in acquiring nuclear powered submarines which are quieter, more capable as compared to their conventional counterparts.
Such submarines can be deployed for longer periods and needing to surface less frequently.
These are nuclear powered submarines and not armed with nuclear weapons.
AUKUS will also involve a new architecture of meeting and engagements between three countries.
It also involves the cooperation across emerging technologies like AI, quantum technologies as well as undersea capabilities.
AUKUS partnership is a very rare because U.S. shared this kind of technology on nuclear powered submarines only once to UK, before sharing it with Australia.