India will host the sixth Indian Ocean Dialogue and the 11^th Delhi Dialogue on Friday and Saturday. The two events are the key elements of India’s engagement with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and ASEAN.

Jose Tavares, the Foreign Ministry’s ASEAN director general, said the Delhi Dialogue was a 1.5 track dialogue that would be attended by government officials and political and economic academics and think tanks. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi will give a keynote address at the opening session, he added.

India’s withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has not been included on the agendas of any key meetings, although there is a possibility the issue could be raised in subsequent panels, officials said on Thursday.

“Of course there is flexibility in the discussions, so any issues can be raised,” Jose told reporters.

At the third RCEP Summit, held as part of the 35^th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would withdraw from the RCEP agreement, citing concerns about India’s trade deficit and an anticipated jump in imports.

Leaders of the 15 remaining countries have announced they had concluded text-based negotiations of the trade pact, but left the door open for India to rejoin the agreement.

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