Asean-India: Shared values, common destiny

TODAY, 1.25 billion Indians will have the honour to host ten esteemed guests - leaders of Asean nations - at India's Republic Day celebrations in our capital, New Delhi. Yesterday, I had the privilege to host the Asean leaders for the Commemorative Summit to mark 25 years of Asean-India Partnership. Their presence with us is an unprecedented gesture of goodwill from Asean nations. Responding to this, on a winter morning, India has come out to greet them in a warm embrace of friendship.

This is no ordinary event. It is a historic milestone in a remarkable journey that has brought India and Asean in a deepening partnership of great promise for their 1.9 billion people, about one-fourth of the human kind.

India-Asean partnership may be just 25 years old. But, India's ties with South-east Asia stretch back more than two millennia. Forged in peace and friendship, religion and culture, art and commerce, language and literature, these enduring links are now present in every facet of the magnificent diversity of India and South-east Asia, providing a unique envelope of comfort and familiarity between our people.