A special meeting between India and Southeast Asian Foreign Ministers opened on June 16 with co-chairs India and Singapore calling for strengthening ties amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a heightened rivalry between the United States and China that threatens peace and stability in the region.
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) face geopolitical headwinds from the war in Ukraine and its knock-on effects on food and energy security as well as fertilizer and commodities prices and logistics and supply chain disruptions.
"India fully supports a strong, unified, prosperous ASEAN whose centrality in the Indo-Pacific is fully recognised," he said. Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Russia’s actions have "upended the international system of rules and norms.”
