Bandar Seri Begawan, Oct 10 – India plans to set up a new mission for Asean and would appoint a separate ambassador for the strategically important region as it aims to take forward its relationship with the ten-member block, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
The announcement for setting up this new mission is likely to be made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Asean-India summit here Thursday. Manmohan arrived here on Wednesday and would attend the Asean summit and also the East Asia Summit on Thursday before leaving for a bilateral visit to Indonesia from Oct 10-12.
The new mission would be set up in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia where Asean Secretariat is also based, official sources said.
Manmohan came here on Wednesday to participate in the 11th Asean-India summit, during which he is expected to meet leaders of various countries of this regional grouping that includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
India’s relationship with Asean has expanded considerably in the recent years in areas ranging from economy, security and defence cooperation.
“To take this relationship to the next step, we will set up a new mission for Asean and a separate ambassador for the region.
“The announcement is expected to be made by the Prime Minister during this trip at the Asean-India summit,” official sources said. India already has separate missions for multi-country groupings like European Union and the United Nations.
India’s Asean focus is part of the country’s Look East policy to boost ties with the nations of this region. A Free Trade Agreement in trade and services is already in the making between India and Asean and a pact for the same is expected to be signed within the next three months.
According to official sources, the implementation of the new FTA would begin in July 2014. An FTA in trade and goods is already in place between India and ASEAN and the same has helped expand their trade to about US$76 billion annually.
The new FTA in services and investments is considered to be key in further growing India-Asean trade to US$100 billion in 2015 and to US$200 billion by 2022.
The areas of cooperation between India and Asean include science and technology, agriculture, environment, human resources, space, energy, telecom, infrastructure, tourism, defence, security, culture, health and pharmaceuticals.
The issues to be discussed during PM’s visit could also include progress on Mekong-India project, which has made some improvement, but the pace has been slow, sources said.
– Bernama
