Assam Congress president and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi has been appointed chairperson of the India–Philippines Parliamentary Friendship Group after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted multiple such groups drawn from members of the 18th Lok Sabha. The groups are intended to promote cooperation, mutual understanding and institutional collaboration between India and partner countries through structured legislative dialogue.
Parliamentary Friendship Groups provide lawmakers a formal platform to engage with foreign counterparts on governance, trade, security, culture and regional cooperation. They are increasingly used as instruments of soft diplomacy to complement executive-level ties and sustained bilateral engagement.
The India–Philippines group is expected to focus on areas where both countries seek deeper cooperation, including maritime security, defence, trade, education and people-to-people exchanges, at a time of growing strategic convergence in the Indo-Pacific.
Speaker Om Birla has constituted friendship groups with 64 countries and handed leadership of more than a dozen to senior Opposition leaders, including prominent figures from the INDIA bloc. Each group will comprise 11 members drawn from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, reflecting an effort to ensure cross-party and bicameral participation in India’s parliamentary outreach.
Among the key chair appointments are Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor for France, P. Chidambaram for Italy, K. C. Venugopal for Portugal, Manish Tewari for Australia and Gaurav Gogoi for the Philippines. The DMK’s K. Kanimozhi will head the Greece group. The Trinamool Congress has been given two groups, with Derek O’Brien named for Chile and Abhishek Banerjee for Algeria. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant will chair Morocco, while NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule will lead the Singapore panel.
Other notable assignments include AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi for Oman, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for Japan, Ram Gopal Yadav for Egypt, AAP’s Sanjay Singh for the Caribbean countries and RSP leader N. K. Premachandran for Madagascar. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been named a member of the Japan group led by Akhilesh Yadav.
The composition also includes several Opposition MPs who were suspended during the first phase of the Budget Session, indicating that House disciplinary action has not precluded participation in parliamentary diplomacy. Among them are Manickam Tagore (Indonesia), Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Italy), Hibi Eden (Singapore), Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (UK), Prashant Padole (Trinidad and Tobago), Dean Kuriakose (Saudi Arabia) and C. Kiran Kumar Reddy (South Korea). CPI(M) MP S. Venkatesan has been included in the group for Cuba.
The move signals the 18th Lok Sabha’s renewed push to leverage legislative channels in advancing India’s global partnerships and reinforces Parliament’s role in shaping the country’s diplomatic footprint amid sharp domestic political contestation.
Original Source: https://www.indiatodayne.in/assam/story/gaurav-gogoi-appointed-as-chairperson-of-india-philippines-parliamentary-friendship-group-1350935-2026-02-24?utm_source=rssfeed
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Publish Date: 2026-02-24 13:39:00
