On 29 August 2022, H.E. Urawadee Sriphiromya, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Thailand to ASEAN, witnessed the launch of the ASEAN-India Network of Universities at the ASEAN Secretariat. The Ceremony was presided over by Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, and attended by the Secretary-General of ASEAN, the Deputy Secretaries-General of ASEAN, Professor Sunaina Singh, Vice Chancellor of Nalanda University, the Ambassador of India to ASEAN, and the Permanent Representatives of ASEAN Member States.

The ASEAN-India Network of Universities or AINU was one of the initiatives by the Honourable Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. AINU was envisioned as the knowledge ecosystem forged through the linkages among the distinguished universities in ASEAN and India, with Nalanda University as the Nodal Institution, and will be implemented through faculty exchange programmes, doctoral student exchange programmes, as well as joint research and joint PhD supervision. For Thailand, Mahidol University has been designated a partner of AINU.

After the Launch Ceremony, Ambassador Sriphiromya attended a working lunch with Minister Singh, during which she proposed ways to further strengthen ASEAN-India cooperation, particularly in the areas of connectivity, green growth, the application of the BCG Economy Model, and food and energy security. Ambassador Sriphiromya also reiterated the importance of the early completion of the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway. The Indian side also expressed its interest to conduct joint activities with the ASEAN University Network (AUN) situated in Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

Photo Courtesy of the ASEAN Secretariat