Mister President, Your Majesty, Excellencies,

I am deeply grateful to all of you for your kind appreciation of the success of Chandrayaan. However, this achievement does not belong to Bharat alone; it is an achievement of the entire human race. It will inspire our younger generation to advance further in the field of science and will contribute to the welfare of humanity. Thank you for your valuable thoughts and suggestions.

To further strengthen and enrich our partnership, I would like to place before you proposals for cooperation in six key areas. The first is connectivity. We are already working on the Trilateral Highway and its extension. I welcome our joint statement on maritime cooperation. My vision is to develop a multi-modal connectivity and economic corridor that links South-East Asia with Bharat, West Asia and Europe.

This corridor can focus on areas such as logistics, supply chains, infrastructure, clean energy and solar grids. The second area is digital transformation. The digital economy is a catalyst for our future growth. In Bharat, we have placed strong emphasis on cyber security and digital public infrastructure. We would be happy to share with all of you the “Digital India Stack” developed in Bharat. In this context, I announce the establishment of the “ASEAN–Bharat Fund for Digital Future”.

The third major area is trade and economic engagement. We welcome the progress made last year on the “ASEAN–Bharat Trade in Goods Agreement”. We must complete its review in a time-bound manner. At the same time, initiatives such as the ‘ASEAN–Bharat Start-up Festival’ and the ‘Innovation Summit’ should be taken forward. In this context, we have decided to renew our support to the “Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia”.

Your Majesty, Excellencies,

The fourth area is addressing contemporary challenges. The Global South today is grappling with several challenges, such as food, fertiliser, fuel and climate change. We must collectively raise the shared concerns of the Global South in multilateral forums. In Bharat, the WHO is establishing a “Global Centre for Traditional Medicine”. I invite all of you to associate with this initiative. We should also work together on initiatives such as Mission LiFE, that is, Lifestyle for Environment.

Through Jan Aushadhi Kendras in Bharat, we are making affordable and quality medicines widely available to the people. We would be happy to share our experiences with all of you.

The fifth area is people-to-people contacts. In this context, we should focus on education, science and technology, research, tourism and youth. Today, with Prime Minister His Excellency Xanana Gusmão present amidst us, I am pleased to announce that Bharat has decided to open its embassy in Timor-Leste.

The sixth area is strengthening our strategic engagement. We share common interests in peace, security, prosperity and progress in the Indo-Pacific region. We have commenced maritime exercises this year. It is essential to ensure peace and stability, freedom of navigation and overflight, and unimpeded lawful commerce in the South China Sea as well as other global sea lanes. Any code of conduct for the South China Sea should be in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS. The interests of countries not directly involved in these discussions must also be taken into account.

Your Majesty, Excellencies,

Terrorism is a serious threat to regional and global peace. We must work together and make decisive efforts against terrorism, terror financing and cyber disinformation. I propose that we also enhance mutual cooperation in addressing traditional and non-traditional threats. We should cooperate in the areas of disaster management and maritime domain awareness as well. I also invite all of you to join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

Thank you.

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DS/ST/IG