The Hindu : Front Page : India for open sky policy with ASEAN: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 15, 2007
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India for open sky policy with ASEAN: Manmohan

K. Venugopal

Cebu: India is willing to engage ASEAN in a discussion on an open skies policy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the summit meeting here on Sunday.

"Greater connectivity is central to the idea of regional economic integration," he said, noting that the initiative taken in 2003 to liberalise air services had led to a significant increase in flight connections between India and ASEAN.

`Expedite negotiations'

Urging the Trade Ministers to expedite negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement so that it could be finalised as agreed by July 2007, Dr. Singh said that trade with each other had grown by an "impressive" 30 per cent last year. "This leaves us in little doubt about our ability to achieve, even surpass, the target of $ 30 billion by 2007."

Deepening economic integration

He said that India was seeking to deepen the economic integration by entering into free trade or economic partnership agreements both with ASEAN and with individual countries in the region. "These partnerships... could light up the future of this region," he said.

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