ndia is working with ASEAN to evolve "regional security architecture" in the Asia Pacific with the aim of finding collaborative solutions to emerging and non-traditional challenges, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday.
Discussing various aspects of India's strategic partnership with the powerful bloc, Swaraj said ASEAN-India trade was back on track after two years of slow growth with an increase of 8 per cent in 2016-17.
In her address on India-ASEAN partnership at the Research and Information System, a think tank, the minister listed terror financing, arms smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering and cyber crime as major challenges facing the region. India and ASEAN, she added, had been working to combat them.
"India has been working with ASEAN towards evolving regional security architecture in the Asia Pacific that hinges on emphasising the peaceful settlement of disputes, finding collaborative solutions to emerging and non-traditional challenges, and support for the centrality of ASEAN."
Discussing economic ties, she said the bloc had become India's fourth largest trading partner, accounting for 10 per cent of total trade.