Statement by Prime Minister at the 9th ASEAN-India Summit

Excepts from Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement at the 9th ASEAN-India Summit in Bali, Indonesia on 19 November:

India is extremely pleased with the practice of annual Summits with ASEAN. Our partnership with ASEAN is one of the cornerstones of our foreign policy, and the foundation of our ‘Look East’ Policy.

On the trade and economic front, the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement for Trade in Goods has come into effect in all ASEAN Member States and India following its ratification by Cambodia on 1st August, 2011.

India’s trade with ASEAN has increased by 30% in 2010-2011 and has crossed the 50 billion US dollar mark. With such a rate of growth we should be able to achieve our trade target of 70 billion US dollar by 2012.

I seek your support for the early conclusion of a commercially meaningful Services and Investment Agreement. This would create a positive atmosphere for the implementation of the India-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement as envisaged in our Framework Agreement of 2003. We should endorse the decision taken at the last round of negotiations in October 2011 to conclude the Agreement by March 2012.

India has forwarded a number of cooperative projects as part of this Plan as well as part of the 50 million US dollar ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund to the ASEAN Secretariat. We look forward to an early response from the ASEAN side.

We have already offered to assist in the Master Plan on ASEAN ICT Connectivity and in particular on the establishment of an e-network in the CLMV countries for tele-medicine and tele-education.

The visa on arrival facility for six ASEAN countries is now in place. We should ensure that the Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening tourism cooperation between ASEAN and India is signed at the earliest, preferably at the meeting of the ASEAN-India Tourism Ministers planned to be held in Indonesia in early 2012.

Greater physical connectivity between India and ASEAN remains our strategic objective. There are several proposals under consideration with regard to land and sea connectivity. These include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway, its extension to Laos and Cambodia and the development of a new highway also linking Vietnam.

The events we propose to hold in the run up to the Summit include the holding of the fourth round of the Delhi Dialogue in February 2012 and meetings of the ASEAN-India Ministers for New and Renewable Energy and Agriculture as well as an India-ASEAN Business Fair. We also propose a year-long calendar of cultural activities.

[Source: Prime Minister’s Office, PIB Press Release dated 19^th November 2011]