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India to step up defence ties with Thailand

Sandeep Dikshit

Aim is to complement “Look West” policy with “Look East”

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his visiting Thai counterpart, Gen. (Retd.) Surayud Chulanont, have resolved to step up cooperation in defence, security and civil aviation sectors so that Thailand’s ‘Look West’ policy and India’s ‘Look East’ policy became a “perfect complement to one another.”

In a joint statement, both Prime Ministers agreed to “encourage the authorities concerned” to expedite negotiations on pending defence and security-related agreements and memoranda of understanding with a view to achieving their early conclusion and implementation. Recognising that terrorism constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, the two leaders condemned terrorism in “all its forms and manifestations” as “criminal and unjustifiable, irrespective of the motives.” They resolved to strengthen bilateral cooperation to combat terrorism and to coordinate measures in a comprehensive and sustained manner.

The Thai Prime Minister’s visit is the first among three high-level engagements in the coming weeks between India and its eastern neighbours. The Prime Ministers of Vietnam and Cambodia will visit the country early next month to strengthen economic and cultural ties with India. The visits follow a tour by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Indonesia and Singapore. New Delhi is pursuing closer trade-related as well as defence ties with Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Notwithstanding the concern expressed in some circles over the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the two Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction that the bilateral trade volume between the two countries had crossed the $3billion mark with the implementation of the Early Harvest Scheme of the India — Thailand FTA [under which duty on select product lines has been pared].

They expressed confidence that negotiations on the FTA would end at the earliest during the current year. They were also convinced that the target of $4 billion bilateral trade volume by the end of the current year was achievable.

In their meeting, the two Prime Ministers agreed that relations between the two countries were poised for a new level of enhanced partnership and touched upon other promising areas of enhanced cooperation. In this context, they agreed to intensify efforts to further strengthen civil aviation cooperation and resolved to encourage the authorities and the private sector to look into possible methods of fisheries cooperation in accordance with domestic rules and regulations. They also expressed satisfaction with the growing cooperation between the two countries in defence and security and acknowledged the ``good work” that was being done by the Joint Working Group on Security Cooperation.

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