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Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India, gathered on the occasion of the 22nd ASEAN-India Summit on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, where they agreed upon ways to promote Socio-cultural Sustainability.
In the ASEAN-India Joint Leaders' Statement on Sustainable Tourism, as quoted by the Ministry of External Affairs, the member-states agreed to conserve historic and cultural heritage features and promote the inclusion of sites on the World Heritage Convention list. The member states decided to involve local communities in promoting local heritage and culture by integrating fashion, handicraft, and gastronomy tourism to improve the quality of life of local communities. Promote capacity building and enhance competitiveness through the tourism certification and standards. Tourism is to be promoted in a way that enhances the quality of life for local communities while minimising any negative impact. They also decided to share best practices, case studies on capacity building and disseminate best practices for replication and scalability in Sustainable Tourism Development, as per the MEA. They further decided to orient existing collaborations, such as the ASEAN-India Network of Museums, Monuments, Craft, Textile, Gastronomy, and the development of the ASEAN Cultural Heritage List, towards sustainable tourism. The members also agreed to utilise the existing collaboration mechanism of ASEAN and the India Tourism Working Group and the Tourism Ministers' Meeting to promote Sustainable Tourism in the region. The 22nd ASEAN-India Summit was held on 26 October. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his virtual address at the summit, highlighted that the 21st century is the century of India and ASEAN nations and reaffirmed that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a major pillar of India's Act East Policy. He further declared the year 2026 as the 'Year of ASEAN-India Maritime Cooperation'. In his six-minute-long address to the summit, PM Modi also reiterated India's support for ASEAN centrality and its outlook on the Indo-Pacific, highlighting the continuous growth of the India-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership amid global uncertainties. (ANI)
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