India wants closer ties with ASEAN

India wants closer ties with ASEAN

SINGAPORE (AFP): India wants to become a full dialog partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the earliest opportunity, the Sunday Times newspaper said.

Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for External Affairs, said India wanted closer ties after having friendly but low-level relations with ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

"The conditions are ripe for coming even closer together and becoming full dialog partners with ASEAN," Khurshid in an interview with the newspaper.

Khurshid said that ties with East Asian countries have become more important to India but ASEAN's perception of the Cold War and the Soviet influence in the sub-continent had contributed to its past hesitation step up ties.

"They have shown an interest in India. So India can also respond. We did so by quickly becoming sectoral dialog partners with ASEAN," he said.