India to host ASEAN Countries Conference on Traditional Medicines

The Ministry of Ayush with support from the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Mission to ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat is gearing up to host the Conference on Traditional Medicines for ASEAN Countries on 20th July 2023.

The Conference on Traditional Medicines aims to strengthen the platform between India and ASEAN Countries to share their best practices and draw a roadmap for future cooperation in the field of Traditional Medicines.

Addressing the Media at the Curtain Raiser event today, Union Minister for Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The multi-dimensional relationship between India and ASEAN stands on a strong foundation of shared geographical, historical, and civilizational links which is far older that goes back to more than two millennia.”

He continued, “Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi at the 12^th ASEAN India Summit at Myanmar in November 2014 enunciated ‘Act East Policy’, giving a new momentum to the strategic partnership. The India ASEAN conference on Traditional Medicine being held after almost a decade is a major step towards deepening cooperation of India with ASEAN.”

Sharing details about the achievements of the Ministry, he added, “The Ayush sector has grown multi-fold in the last 9 years since the year 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi elevated the then Department of Ayush under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to an independent Ministry of Ayush. Today the Ministry is engaged with many top class International organizations from UK, USA, Japan, Brazil, Germany as well as National organizations like CSIR, DST, DBT, IITs etc. to undertake high quality research on Ayush systems in various Non Communicable disease conditions like Diabetes Mellitus, Cancer, Mental Health as well as infectious diseases like Covid. The ASEAN conference will provide a platform to share the research outcomes of various projects implemented by the Ministry of Ayush. Similarly, ASEAN countries will also share their experiences.”

Further highlighting the goals of the conference, the Union Minister added, “The Conference will also provide a platform to share the recent developments in regulatory framework in ASEAN member states for promoting Traditional Medicine.”

The Ministry of Ayush has already established robust International Co-operation in Ayush to boost export of Ayush Products and services and has also successfully signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on ‘Cooperation in the field of Traditional Medicines’, ‘Setting up of Ayush Chairs in Foreign Universities/Institutes and for undertaking ‘Collaborative Research’ at various levels. This has resulted in Ayush gaining a strong recognition in not only ASEAN but other countries also.

A total of 75 participants – International delegates from 8 ASEAN countries and 2 International delegates through virtual mode will brainstorm and share their ideas on Traditional Medicines during this one day conference which will be held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.