Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (second left) with the Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen (left), Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Waddaulah (second right), and the President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the Asean-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi yesterday.
New Delhi: Unveiling the vision of a resurgent and integrated Asia, India and the 10-nation Asean yesterday declared the conclusion of negotiations on a FTA in services and investments and upgraded their ties to a strategic partnership that includes closer cooperation in political, economic and security areas.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held wide-ranging talks with leaders of 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) that included intensification of trade and investments, closer security cooperation and enhanced physical and cultural connectivity. “We declare that the Asean-India partnership stands elevated to a strategic partnership,” said the vision document which was unanimously adopted by the leaders of India and Asean countries at the end of the plenary session of the India-Asean commemorative summit. The leaders agreed to work towards “the full, effective and timely implementation of the Asean-India dialogue relations across the whole spectrum of political and security, economic, social and development cooperation.”
Placing the strategic partnership in context, Manmohan Singh said: “This is a time of great flux and transition, with several unsettled questions and unresolved issues in our region. Our responsibility to work for peace has increased and become more urgent.”
“Our shared values, convergent world views and similarities in approaches to the region should help us make the India-Asean relationship more comprehensive and elevate it to a Strategic Partnership for the next decade and beyond.”
The focus was clearly on scaling up economic ties to new heights, with the leaders airing their collective confidence to achieve $100bn bilateral trade by 2015. Currently, trade between India and Asean is around $80bn. The showpiece of the summit was the formal declaration of the successful conclusion of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement in services and investments. Addressing the plenary of the Commemorative Summit here, Manmohan Singh said: “It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to see that our Commemorative Summit today coincides with the conclusion of negotiations for the FTA in Services and Investments.”
IANS
