The Congress on Tuesday slammed the government after a report said Malaysia, co-chair of the Asean-India trade review, had expressed displeasure over commerce minister Piyush Goyal’s “B-Team of China” remark, with Jairam Ramesh calling it “another blow” to Indian diplomacy.

“India has very close civilizational, cultural, economic, and political ties with the 10-nation ASEAN Group--Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ASEAN, that came into being almost six decades back, has a combined GDP just slightly lower than that of India. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister dismisses them as the B team of China. ASEAN now ticks him off,” Ramesh, the Congress's general secretary in-charge of communications, wrote on X. “Indian diplomacy suffers yet another blow. This was needless.”

He shared a newspaper report that stated that on Friday, at a scheduled India-Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) meeting held in Kuala Lumpur to review Asean-India trade agreement review, the Malaysian co-chair put out a strong message in response to Goyal’s comments.

A government official told PTI on Monday that Asean nations were slowing down the Free Trade Agreement review talks.

"So far, nine rounds of talks have been completed. They are going very slow. Very less progress is there. Asean is stonewalling the talks," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Last Thursday Goyal had described Asean countries as the "B-team of China" and dubbed trade deals with them as "silly".

Speaking at the India Global Forum (IGF) session on UK-India Science, Technology and Innovation Collaboration at the Science Museum in London, Goyal said, "There was a point of time 15 years ago when we were more focused on doing FTAs with countries who were our competitors. So if I am doing an ASEAN agreement, it really is silly because [that is] opening up my market to my competitors, many of whom have now become the B team of China."

"So effectively and indirectly, I have opened up my market for goods that find their way from China into India," the commerce minister said.

Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma had earlier said Goyal's statements were "unwarranted, ill-advised and unfortunate".

"This is an integral part of the Look East policy to deepen and diversify India's relations with a region that is economically vibrant and of enormous geo-strategic importance for engagement with the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

Sharma, a former commerce minister, reminded that successive Indian governments have pursued this policy and said: "Piyush Goyal's statement terming the Trade agreement with Asean as silly and labelling these countries as B team of China is irresponsible and insulting. He has forgotten that President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto was the chief guest for 2025 Republic Day Parade.”

Asean was formed on August 8, 1967 when the Foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand signed a declaration that formed the inter-governmental organisation.