Rao on trade mission

Rao on trade mission

NEW DELHI (Reuter): Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao heads to Vietnam and Singapore today hoping to hitch India's new free- market economy to two of southeast Asia's locomotives of business growth.

Senior Indian officials said on Saturday that international politics would take a back seat to business deals during Rao's visit to Hanoi on Sept. 5-7, followed by a swing through Singapore on Sept. 7-9.

"These are not one-off visits," senior Foreign Ministry official Salman Haider said, referring to Rao's several Asian trips over the past two years which have taken him to China, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.

"This is part of a pattern of extending our relationships with countries of regional significance which have growing economic capacities," Haider told reporters on Saturday.

Traditionally India has forged its strongest trade ties with the United States and Western Europe. But Asia's stunning economic advances and a general easing of regional political tensions have prompted India to turn increasingly eastward.