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India enhances 'connectivity' with ASEAN

By P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Sept. 18. India has embarked on a process of striking a vigorous ``connectivity'' with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indicating this, the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, said today that the next ASEAN-India summit, scheduled to be held in Bali next month would serve as ``an occasion to review the progress''.

During a visit to Bangkok, Mr. Sibal identified three aspects of this process, in a telephonic conversation with The Hindu. These relate to the prospects of an India-Thailand free trade agreement (FTA), the intensification of New Delhi's participation in the inter-regional forum that began as a Bay of Bengal community and the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's imminent opportunity to engage the ASEAN leaders at the highest level. Mr. Sibal was in Bangkok to attend the senior officials' meeting of the forum of BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation).

Noting that India was very supportive of the BIMSTEC forum, which was being enlarged to include Bhutan and Nepal, he said New Delhi saw this geopolitical grouping as a ``platform'' for strengthening ties with the ASEAN too. It was in this context that the prospective FTA with Thailand could also help enhance India's connectivity with the ASEAN even as the BIMSTEC forum itself served as a ``staging post'', too, for this purpose.

Asked whether Mr. Vajpayee might unveil a new initiative during the ensuing ASEAN-India summit, in the manner he announced New Delhi's plans for an FTA with this regional association during the first such summit held in Phnom Penh last year, Mr. Sibal said: ``Nothing beyond that. Immediately, I cannot tell''. India was still ``trying to finalise the FTA'' with the ASEAN.

On India's attitude towards the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, whose summit will be held in Bangkok next month, the Foreign Secretary said New Delhi was not pressing for membership. In any case, the APEC forum had, for the present, ``frozen'' the issue of new membership. Also, the grouping itself had ``lost much of its lustre'' when the U.S., after being terror-struck recently, ``renewed its interest in APEC'' on the ground that the economic development of the region could not be neglected if its ``instability'' were to be averted.

Describing India's current equation with China as ``satisfactory'', Mr. Sibal said that the two countries were now ``working on the dates'' for the first meeting of their special representatives who had been mandated to ``explore the framework of a boundary settlement'' by taking into account ``the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship''.

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