Seeking to deepen ties with ASEAN as part of India's 'Act East' policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to pitch for improving connectivity in the region to give a boost to trade and people-to-people contact at their summit next week.
Modi leaves for Myanmar on Tuesday to attend the 12th ASEAN-India summit and the 9th East Asian summit on November 12 and 13 respectively on the first leg of his three-nation 10-day foreign tour that will also take him to Australia and Fiji.
Giving a broad overview on the two back-to-back summits, Anil Wadhwa, Secretary(East) in the External Affairs Ministry, said India is keen that the next ASEAN-India five-year plan of action starting 2016 should lay emphasis on enhancing people-to-people contacts, augmenting trade besides reinforcing the strategic and political relationship.
The plan will also focus on security architecture in the region, he said.
An ambitious project is underway to develop a 3,200-km highway linking India, Myanmar and Thailand. It was originally envisaged to be completed around 2017 but it is behind schedule and is now expected to be completed in 2018.
Wadhwa said India and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc hope to dovetail the connectivity plans with this highway. Prime Minister Modi in a recent tweet said that India's ties with ASEAN are "deep rooted" and that strengthening relations with the nations in the grouping are an important part of its 'Act East' policy".
He said he looked forward to meeting leaders attending the two summits in Myanmar.
"ASEAN is central to our dream of an Asian century, where India will play a crucial role. Am sure the meetings there would be fruitful," he had said.
Noting that the grouping of 10 southeast nations hopes to make ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) a reality by the end of 2015, Wadhwa said the free trade pact in services and investment between India and the ASEAN is expected to help the bilateral trade touch US $100 billion by 2015.
The bilateral trade grew 4.6% from US $68.4 billion in 2011 to US $71.6 billion in 2012. ASEAN's exports were valued at US $43.84 billion and imports from India amounted to US $27.72 billion in 2012.
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