Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar co-chaired the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC) with India in Manila, Philippines on Wednesday, 22 July 2026, alongside Philippine counterpart Secretary Lazaro, reaffirming the depth of India's engagement with the ten-member Southeast Asian bloc and underscoring the centrality of the Indo-Pacific to shared regional ambitions.

Context

Posting on X after the session, Dr. Jaishankar conveyed India's appreciation for the Philippines in its role as country coordinator for strengthening the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership — the upgraded framework formalised at the 2022 ASEAN-India Summit in Phnom Penh. The minister noted that the conference theme — 'Navigating Our Future, Together' — 'aptly captures our shared values anchored firmly in mutual trust and cooperation for the development, peace, and stability across the Indo-Pacific region.'

The PMC format brings together ASEAN foreign ministers and their dialogue partners, making it one of the most consequential multilateral diplomatic engagements in the regional calendar. India has been an ASEAN dialogue partner since 1992 and elevated the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022.

Policy Backdrop

Dr. Jaishankar stressed that 'the world is increasingly turbulent,' with supply chains, energy, food and health security, and maritime cooperation all under stress, and underlined that 'no single nation or grouping can deal with the volatility and disruption on its own.' The minister highlighted that deeper cooperation is the path to 'de-risk and diversify' — language that echoes India's broader strategic posture of building resilient, multi-partner regional architecture without exclusive alliances.

A centrepiece of the minister's remarks was the declaration that 2026 is the 'ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation', which he called 'a timely reminder of what we can do for a more stable and secure future.' India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), launched in 2019, operates across seven pillars including maritime security and sustainability, and Dr. Jaishankar underscored that it 'measures with' the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) — the bloc's own 2019 framework stressing ASEAN centrality and a rules-based regional order.

India's Act East Policy, announced in 2014 and building on the 1992 Look East Policy, has progressively deepened ties with Southeast Asia through annual summits, the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (in force since 2010), and expanding security dialogues.

Stakeholders and Impact

The minister outlined a 'rich India-ASEAN agenda' spanning trade and investment, mobility and talent, technology, digital and artificial intelligence, green transition and sustainability, and connectivity — a breadth that reflects the ambitions of all 10 ASEAN member states and their combined population of over 670 million. For the Philippines specifically, co-chairing the PMC with India signals Manila's active role in shaping the bilateral agenda during its coordinator tenure.

The emphasis on ASEAN centrality — described by Dr. Jaishankar as 'a key principle' for India — is significant for regional economies wary of great-power competition reshaping the Indo-Pacific. India's alignment of the IPOI with the AOIP offers a framework for cooperation that keeps ASEAN at the centre of regional architecture rather than on the periphery.

What's Next

With 2026 designated the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation, joint activities including potential naval dialogues, port connectivity projects, and blue-economy initiatives are expected to roll out across the year. Negotiations on trade in services and digital economy cooperation are also anticipated to feature prominently at the next ASEAN-India Summit. India's sustained push to align the IPOI with AOIP suggests that maritime governance and Indo-Pacific stability will remain the defining pillars of the partnership in the near term.