The Hindu : International : Doha impasse a challenge: meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 27, 2006

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International

Doha impasse a challenge: meet

P. S. Suryanarayana

Sense of urgency over trade talks

SINGAPORE: India, China, Japan, and others in the East Asia Summit (EAS) have expressed a sense of urgency that the new regional group should respond to the collapse of the Doha round of global trade talks.

A consensus among Ministers from the 16 EAS countries, who met in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday for the first-ever consultations at their level, was that the turn of events under the umbrella of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), if irreversible, would pose a new challenge to East Asian economies.

India was represented at the meeting by Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh, Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry Rajiv Sikri and Joint Secretary B.S. Bishnoi. India's High Commissioner to Malaysia R. L. Narayan assisted the Minister in his bilateral talks with his counterparts from some of the other EAS countries. Answering questions, over the telephone from Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Singh later said the EAS Ministers felt that the group must do something to address the failure of the Doha round.

Clusters of issues

While the EAS Heads of Government or State might add this concern to their agenda, the Ministers endorsed the "clusters of issues" that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat had identified for the leaders' attention.

The 10-state ASEAN forms the core sub-group within the EAS, which includes India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Topping the "clusters" was energy security, and tcooperation on financial matters, public health issues, education and disaster management. Of these, the escalating crisis in West Asia was seen as reinforcing the importance of energy security.

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