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.