India and SE Asian nations focus on economic ties

India and SE Asian nations focus on economic ties

Luke Hunt, Agence France-Presse, Phnom Penh

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee ended an historic
meeting with Southeast Asian leaders Tuesday with hopes of
establishing a free trade agreement with Southeast Asian nations
within a decade.

The leaders of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) welcomed Vajpayee's determination to build
stronger economic ties between the region and India, which has a
middle class of 300 million people.

"The prime minister wants to work towards a free trade
agreement with ASEAN within the next 10 years," Indian Foreign
Minister Yashwant Sinha said after the meeting, while emphasizing
India did not want to be an economic threat to Southeast Asia.

"We are not in competition with ASEAN or any group of
countries within ASEAN," Sinha quoted Vajpayee as saying.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said ASEAN and India had
agreed that concrete co-operation between the two would be
established within the next 10 years, and signaled greater
opportunities to invest along the Mekong river, which runs
through five Southeast Asian nations.

"We agreed to work together to broaden and intensify joint
efforts in the Mekong basin," Hun Sen said.

Through a proposed Regional Trade and Investment Area
agreement proposed during the meeting, their markets would be
combined to include some 1.5 billion consumers and a gross
national product of 1.7 trillion dollars.

Vajpayee's mission in Phnom Penh was the first time a leader
from the subcontinent had addressed a summit, and all parties
pledged to use the occasion as a platform to build stronger ties.

Although the talks were squarely focused on economic
relations, Vajpayee also called for a unified effort "to fight
the almighty scourge of terror".

The two parties discussed an agreement to develop concrete
programs to jointly fight terrorism, piracy, drug and people
trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering, economic crime and
cybercrime.

While terrorism was briefly discussed at the meeting, ASEAN
officials said India's long-running conflict with nuclear-rival
Pakistan was not on the agenda.

And with the focus remaining on trade, Vajpayee obliged ASEAN
leaders seeking Indian assistance to help technologically weaker
countries.

"We want to deepen our linkages in trade, investment and
technologies, especially high technologies," Sinha quoted
Vajpayee as saying.

"We'd like cooperation between ASEAN and India in software and
hardware technologies and pharmaceuticals."

India became an ASEAN sectoral dialogue partner in 1992 and
was elevated to a full dialogue partner three years later,
meaning the nations could hold talks at ministerial level.