ASEAN and India reaffirm terms of joint partnership on sustainable tourism

The partnership will involve support for cultural heritage conservation, resource efficiency, biodiversity protection, and share best practices for inclusive, resilient tourism aligned with ASEAN standards.

The 47^thASEAN Summit 2025, which took place from 26 to 28 October, saw regional and global leaders signing and reaffirming a series of agreements and partnerships, including the joint ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Advancing sustainable tourism and inclusive growth with India

As part of the summit outcomes, ASEAN and India released the Joint Leaders’ Statement on Sustainable Tourism, outlining a collaborative vision to promote responsible travel, empower local communities, and enhance regional tourism resilience.

Here is a brief summary of the statement's key terms outlined: 

1. Support cultural heritage conservation, resource efficiency, biodiversity protection, and share best practices for inclusive, resilient tourism aligned with ASEAN standards.
2. Follow sustainability principles: environmental, socio-cultural, and economic — achieved through information sharing, capacity building, and institutional linkages.
3. Adopt environmental sustainability via reduce, reuse, recycle; Travel for LiFE actions; biodiversity-friendly practices; and sustainable sourcing and packaging.
4. Adhere to pollution reduction norms by changing tourist consumption patterns, enforcing regulations, promoting ESG protocols, and deploying renewable energy at sensitive sites.
5. Share investment opportunities and encourage mutual investment in low-carbon infrastructure using local materials and traditional wisdom.
6. Protect biological diversity by developing sustainable tourism products and involving ASEAN’s Center for Biodiversity and India’s Ministry of Environment and Forest.
7. Encourage women, youth, and communities to support tourism while preserving environmental and cultural sanctity.
8. Promote sustainable economic operations that provide fairly distributed socioeconomic benefits, stable employment, and income.
9. Encourage ecotourism by balancing tourist and community needs, avoiding over-exploitation, and involving local groups.
10. Maximise tourism’s economic contribution by involving communities in promotion, training, and ownership of sustainable initiatives.
11. Support data-driven tourism using digital technologies to enhance experiences, analyze tourist flows, and exchange best practices.
12. Conserve historic and cultural heritage and promote inclusion of sites on the World Heritage Convention list.
13. Involve communities in heritage promotion through fashion, handicrafts, and gastronomy, while enhancing competitiveness via certification and standards.
14. Share best practices and case studies for replication and scalability in sustainable tourism development.
15. Orient existing collaborations (e.g. ASEAN-India Network of Museums, Craft, Textile, Gastronomy) toward sustainable tourism.
16. Utilise ASEAN–India tourism mechanisms like the Tourism Working Group and Ministers’ Meeting to promote regional sustainable tourism.

Malaysia–South Korea Free Trade Agreement

One of the key highlights of the summit was also the conclusion of the Malaysia–Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement (MKFTA) negotiations. The Joint Statement was signed by Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Malaysia, and his counterpart Yeo Han-koo, Minister for Trade, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, Republic of Korea.

The MKFTA covers goods, services, investments, customs facilitation, sanitary phytosanitary, digital trade, green economy, bioeconomy and economic cooperation. This FTA focused on economic cooperation and capacity building between the two nations.

The agreement will see long-term duty-free access to various products of strategic export interest for Malaysia, covering the food and agricultural sectors, herbal products and extracts, commodity products including palm and cocoa products, chemical and petrochemical products, and tropical timber and plywood.

In addition to the Agreement, both countries also successfully concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Strategic Cooperation on Supply Chains, recognising the importance of deepening cooperation on economic security including cooperation in areas such as supply chain resilience.

Tengku Zafrul shared: “We see numerous opportunities to forge closer collaboration with Korea in the fields of industrial development; trade; and investment. I am pleased to share that we will also be exploring other sectors such as green economy; digital; and bioeconomy, which would also elevate the value of our FTA to different stakeholders. We are also hopeful that the MKFTA will be beneficial to both countries’ SMEs and businesses." 

"This FTA will further strengthen Malaysia’s bilateral strategic partnership through closer trade and investment cooperation to establish a dynamic, mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries."

Tengku Zafrul added that in 2024, South Korea ranked as Malaysia’s eighth largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching USD 24.01bn. Malaysia’s key exports included electronics, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and petroleum products, while imports from Korea comprised machinery, chemicals, and steel. Since 1980, Korean investments in Malaysia have totaled RM61.9bn, generating over 83,000 job opportunities. Under the MKFTA, Malaysian professionals – including accountants, auditors, lawyers, and engineers – are expected to benefit from enhanced mobility and market access in Korea.

Beyond trade, the MKFTA features a robust agenda for economic cooperation and capacity building. It aims to strengthen sectoral capabilities across industry, manufacturing, aquaculture, engineering, science, and innovation. Key focus areas also include the bioeconomy, green mobility, digitalisation, automation, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.

Human capital development will also be supported through training, internships, and expert exchange programmes. Recognising Korea’s global leadership in digital innovation, Tengku Zafrul shared that Malaysia is eager to learn from its policies and best practices, with hopes of establishing deeper cooperation in these transformative sectors.

In a Facebook post, Tengku Zafrul said several key economic milestones were discussed during the summit. Among the highlights was the progress in the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Review negotiations, which aim to strengthen regional trade values and supply chains. These negotiations are expected to be substantially finalised by the end of 2025.

Other notable developments include support for the India–Myanmar–Thailand Three-Way Highway Project, which will enhance regional connectivity, and the launch of the ASEAN-India Digital Future Fund (AIFDF) to boost digital and financial interconnectivity across the region.

He added that ASEAN and India also committed to deepening cooperation in innovation, clean energy, and the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), with increased involvement from industrial and private sector stakeholders.

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Lead image / Tengku Zafrul FB