Around 11% of India’s international trade is with ASEAN, making it a significant trading partner, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated on Friday.
In 2024–2025, bilateral commerce between India and the 10 ASEAN members was an astounding USD 123 billion, highlighting the close economic ties and enormous potential for future cooperation.
From August 10 to 14, Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi hosted the 10th Meeting of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Joint Committee and associated sessions.
The talks, which were centered on revising and modernizing the AITIGA, included representatives from all ten ASEAN nations: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The goal of the meeting was to improve the agreement’s efficacy, accessibility, and suitability for facilitating commerce in a changing global economy.
The Joint Committee investigated methods to simplify processes, eliminate obstacles, and harmonize regulations, building on the momentum from eight rounds of negotiations that had already been finished.
Senior authorities and trade specialists from all around the region came together for the high-level meeting, which was held in a hybrid style.
Seven of the eight AITIGA Sub-Committees met in addition to the main sessions to delve deeper into specialized topics such as market access, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, rules of origin, technical standards, legal frameworks, trade remedies, and customs procedures.
The Ministry claims that these focused discussions made it possible to work intensively on complicated topics, guaranteeing that any changes to AITIGA will take into account both the member countries’ unified vision and technical rigor.
The week-long discussions established the foundation for more transparent, predictable, and advantageous trade while reinforcing the strategic significance of ASEAN-India economic ties.
According to the ministry, the discussion will resume when the Joint Committee convenes once more on October 6-7, 2025, at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, in a session hosted by Malaysia.
Mastura Ahmad Mustafa, Deputy Secretary General (Trade) in Malaysia’s Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry, and Nitin Kumar Yadav, Additional Secretary in India’s Department of Commerce, co-chaired the sessions.