Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar met Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN, in Manila on Wednesday, 22 July 2026, to review progress on the India-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and discuss the contours of the upcoming five-year cooperation roadmap.

Posting on X, Dr. Jaishankar wrote: 'Good to interact with Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General @ASEAN in Manila today. Thank him for the consistent support from the @ASEAN Secretariat for advancing our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Also exchanged views on the core pillars of India-ASEAN Plan of Action for 2026–2030, to further strengthen our partnership across polity, economy, security and culture.'

Context

Manila, the Philippine capital, is a regular venue for ASEAN ministerial-level meetings and external-partner dialogues. The meeting between Dr. Jaishankar and Dr. Kao Kim Hourn — a Cambodian diplomat who assumed charge as ASEAN Secretary-General in January 2023 — reflects the institutionalised cadence of India-ASEAN engagement at the secretariat level. Dr. Jaishankar thanked the ASEAN Secretariat for its 'consistent support' in advancing the partnership, signalling satisfaction with the operational coordination between New Delhi and Jakarta-based ASEAN headquarters.

Policy Backdrop

India and ASEAN elevated their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the virtual summit of November 2020, marking the highest tier of bilateral relationship. This built on India's pivot from the earlier Look East Policy to the Act East Policy, formally unveiled at the 2014 ASEAN-India Summit in Myanmar, which deepened strategic, economic and cultural links with Southeast Asia and East Asian partners.

The India-ASEAN Plan of Action 2026–2030 is set to succeed the preceding 2021–2025 action plan, which established institutional mechanisms and priority projects across the partnership's four pillars: polity, economy, security and culture. Wednesday's discussion signals that New Delhi is actively shaping the content of the next five-year roadmap ahead of its anticipated formal adoption at the next ASEAN-India Summit.

Stakeholders and Impact

The ASEAN Secretariat, India's Ministry of External Affairs, and the ten ASEAN member-state governments are the primary institutional stakeholders in the Plan of Action's implementation. For regional economies, the economic pillar of the roadmap carries particular weight, as India-ASEAN trade and connectivity initiatives directly affect supply chains, investment flows and infrastructure development across Southeast Asia.

The security and polity pillars also carry strategic significance in the context of a contested Indo-Pacific — a framing Dr. Jaishankar underscored by tagging #IndoPacific alongside #ActEast in his post. India's approach emphasises ASEAN centrality while pursuing a multi-alignment strategy, making the Secretariat's institutional backing a valued asset for New Delhi.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the next ASEAN-India Summit, where the India-ASEAN Plan of Action 2026–2030 is expected to be formally adopted or reviewed, along with potential announcements of flagship projects under its four pillars. Wednesday's meeting in Manila suggests that the groundwork at the secretariat level is already under way, with both sides aligned on the broad architecture of the new roadmap.

As India deepens its Indo-Pacific partnerships, the consistency and ambition of the 2026–2030 plan will serve as a key indicator of whether the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership translates into concrete deliverables across trade, connectivity, defence and people-to-people ties.