Pariksha SaathiFirst ASEAN-India Defence Think Tank Forum held at MP-IDSA in New Delhi
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh delivered the keynote address at the first ASEAN-India Defence Think Tank Forum, held on 14-15 October 2026 at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in New Delhi with participants from all eleven ASEAN member states and India. He said India seeks an Indo-Pacific in which every country, regardless of size, can make its own choices, protect its interests and pursue development in peace, and he proposed a joint research agenda and pilot projects between the two sides' strategic communities. The forum follows the announcement he made at the second ASEAN-India Defence Ministers' Informal Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 31 October 2025, and it takes place in 2026, which India and ASEAN have designated the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation. Sessions covered maritime security, grey-zone challenges, defence technology, cyber and space, and resilient defence supply chains.
Drafted with AI assistance from news coverage, then checked statement by statement against the official PIB release linked above by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
India’s formal ties with ASEAN began in 1992 as a Sectoral Dialogue Partner, became a full Dialogue Partnership in 1995, moved to summit level with the first ASEAN-India Summit at Phnom Penh in 2002, were raised to a Strategic Partnership in 2012 and to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the 19th ASEAN-India Summit on 12 November 2022. ASEAN itself was founded by the Bangkok Declaration of 8 August 1967 and admitted Timor-Leste as its 11th member on 26 October 2025. The host of this forum, MP-IDSA, is the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses set up in 1965, renamed after Manohar Parrikar in 2020.
Reference: Ministry of External Affairs brief on India-ASEAN relations (July 2025)
Check yourself: how many ASEAN member states are there today, and when did the newest one join?
Eleven. Timor-Leste became the 11th member at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on 26 October 2025, the first expansion since Cambodia joined in 1999, which is why this release speaks of all eleven ASEAN member states.
Revision task: from this release, note what is new (the first ASEAN-India Defence Think Tank Forum, held at MP-IDSA in New Delhi on 14-15 October 2026, announced by the Raksha Mantri at Kuala Lumpur on 31 October 2025) and that 2026 is the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation, and keep these apart from the standing partnership timeline above.
Test yourself
Where was the first ASEAN-India Defence Think Tank Forum held on 14-15 October 2026?
Show the answer
Answer: MP-IDSA, New Delhi
The inaugural forum was hosted by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in New Delhi; the idea had been announced by the Defence Minister at the ASEAN-India Defence Ministers' Informal Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025.
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