Ten ASEAN leaders accept Narendra Modi's invitation to attend 69th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi

Manila: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday invited leaders of 10 South-East Asian countries to attend the Republic Day celebrations as well as participate at a commemorative summit marking 25th anniversary of India’s ties with the bloc. The leaders have accepted the invitation. In his address at the India-ASEAN Summit, Modi said he was looking forward to a “befitting culmination of the commemorative year and receiving you” at the India-ASEAN Special Commemorative Summit on 25 January 2017 in New Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_4206147” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an ASEAN Summit dinner in Manila on Sunday.[/caption] He said 1.25 billion people of India are keen to welcome the ASEAN leaders as the chief guests at India’s 69th Republic Day celebrations. Preeti Saran, secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, said the ASEAN leaders “graciously accepted” PM Modi’s invitation to attend the two events. Saran said a number of events have been planned in the run up to the commemorative summit including an India-ASEAN connectivity summit on 11 and 12 December, and a business summit in January 2017. She said the sense in the India-ASEAN Summit was that there was huge potential for further expansion of cooperation between the two sides on a range of areas. There was a major focus on improving connectivity between ASEAN nations and India, she added. Referring to the musical play, which was based on the epic Ramayana and presented at the ASEAN opening ceremony, the Cambodian leadership at the summit suggested that ASEAN troupes should be invited for their own rendition of the Ramayana at the commemorative summit in January and the Indian side accepted the proposal. Saran said India will invite groups from all the 10 ASEAN countries for performance on theme based on Ramayana as it reflected India’s civilisational links with the ASEAN nations. The ties between India and ASEAN nations have been on an upswing, particularly in the areas of trade and investment. The ASEAN region, along with India, comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, which is one fourth of the global population, and their combined GDP has been estimated at over $3.8 trillion. Investment from ASEAN to India has been over $70 billion in the last 17 years accounting for more than 17 per cent of India’s total FDI. India’s investment in ASEAN during the same period has been more than $40 billion.