Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid will be participating in this year's Asia Economic Dialogue (AED), scheduled to be held virtually among leaders from across the Asian continent between 26 and 28 February.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed Minister Shahid's participation in AED 2021, organized by the Indian Ministry for External Affairs in association with the Pune International Center research institute.

The theme of discussions for this year's AED is "Post Covid-19 Global Trade and Finance Dynamics", and the dialog will feature high level international participation from foreign ministers from across the Asian continent, in addition to senior bureaucrats, industry leaders and global financial experts. Sessions scheduled for AED 2021 include geoeconomic discussions on topics such as global growth post-pandemic, the state of world finances following Covid-19 and building reliable supply chains as economies begin recovering from the effects of the pandemic. In addition to this, the final day of AED 2021 will feature discussions relating to perspectives on India's role in international development cooperation, with Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid set to contribute to the panel.

The Asian Economic Dialogue set to be held at the end of February is the fifth such dialogue being conducted. Pune Research Center, which hosts AED in association with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, is a think-tank established in 2011, and has confirmed that AED 2021 will be streamed lived on YouTube in light of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.