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wo Indian nationals are set to climb Mount Jayawijaya, also known as Mount Carstensz, in Indonesia’s Papua province, to plant the flags of India, Indonesia and ASEAN on the highest peak in Southeast Asia to mark strengthening diplomatic relations.

The two mountaineers, Satyarup Siddhanta and Nandita Chandrasekhar, said they were honored to be part of the commemoration of 25 years of relations between India and ASEAN this year, which also falls on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN.

On Monday, the two, who are set to embark on their 20-day expedition at the beginning of June, attended a ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta that marked the official handover of the three flags to be hoisted at the peak of the mountain called Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz’s 4,884-meter-high point.

Siddhanta said he had been on an ongoing journey to climb the “seven summits,” the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, when he was approached by the ASEAN-India Center in his home country earlier this month about the idea of hoisting the flags on the highest peak in Southeast Asia to commemorate the anniversaries.

After climbing six of the seven summits, Siddhanta said the Papuan mountain would be one of the most technically challenging, requiring a high level of skills.

Bypassing the common helicopter route, the two climbers will have to venture through the jungle for a week before reaching the bottom of the mountain, which Siddhanta said would be an adventure in itself as they would have to cross rivers and swamps before the ascent.

“Once we reach the top of one peak, the main peak, there are actually two peaks, so we actually have to do the Tyrolean traverse where we would have to cross to the other peak by rope,” Siddhanta said.

For Chandrasekhar, the upcoming expedition is a move to support women’s empowerment. An avid climber since three years ago, she said she had not come across many women mountaineers and hoped to inspire more to participate in the sport.

“I want more women to take part in expeditions like this and prove the women’s empowerment, because this is not just about a man doing it,” Chandrasekhar said.

Citing her own experience, Chandrasekhar said there is a tendency that women would find it more challenging because of stamina the sport demands, as well as the skills needed to traverse through difficult terrain with mastery of the necessary equipment — which could be a challenge in itself to use in the extreme conditions.

The Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN affairs, Jose AM Tavares, welcomed the Jayawijaya expedition as he handed over the Indonesian flag to Siddhanta and Chandrasekhar, who will also be joined in the journey by Musa Ibrahim from Bangladesh.

“This is a symbol of people-to-people contact between the represented communities through each flag, with Indonesia as the region in which the mountain is located, along with India and ASEAN,” Jose said.

The deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for community and corporate affairs, AKP Mochtan, expressed hope that the placing of the flag on the highest peak would symbolically be seen everywhere, and raise awareness of the relations and people-to-people ties.

Indian Ambassador to ASEAN Suresh K. Reddy noted the importance of the event as taking the flags not only to the highest point, but also a quite remote area of ASEAN region as a symbolic gesture of inclusiveness with India.

“So in a way we are supporting the ASEAN Community building process, and also in the process, we are also supporting the building of the India-ASEAN community,” Reddy said