Manmohan leaves for Indonesia, Singapore
Singh will attend the India-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit in Bali in Indonesia with a focus on enhancing trade and investment, connectivity and capacity-building besides discussing security issues.
On the sidelines of these Summits, he will have bilateral meetings with US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
In
the
second
leg
of
the
two-nation
tour,
Singh
will
travel
to
Singapore
on
a
bilateral
visit.
"Partnership
with
ASEAN
is
an
essential
component
of
our
'Look
East' policy,"
the
Prime
Minister
said
in
his
departure
statement
here
today.
He noted that the level of India's engagement with the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) as a group and with individual ASEAN member states has gone up qualitatively in the last few years.
"This is reflected in the areas of trade and investment, capacity-building, connectivity, people-to-people and institutional linkages," Singh said.
He
said
an
ambitious
India-ASEAN
Plan
of
Action
for
2010-2015
has
been
agreed
upon
and
"I
will
review
the
implementation
of
the
Plan
of
Action
with
the
ASEAN
leaders."
Next
year,
India
will
host
the
India-ASEAN
Summit
for
the
first
time
to
commemorate
20
years
of
dialogue
partnership
with
ASEAN,
Singh
pointed
out.
"I
will
have
the
opportunity
to
share
our
ideas
for
the
Commemorative
Summit
with
ASEAN
leaders
in
Bali." About
the
East
Asia
Summit,
Singh
said
it
was
"the
principal
forum
to
devise
an
open
and
inclusive
architecture
of
regional
cooperation
in
the
Asia-Pacific
region."
This year's Summit will see the formal entry into the East Asia Summit process of the United States and Russia, he noted.
"As a founding member, India is part of several initiatives taken by the East Asia Summit to create an economic community in the region such as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia (CEPEA)," he said.
He pointed out that increasingly, political and security issues are becoming part of the East Asia Summit agenda.
"There are concerns among the countries of the region over issues relating to disaster management, maritime security, terrorism and other non-traditional threats to security," he said, adding, "I look forward to an open, frank and productive discussion on all these issues."
Referring to his first bilateral visit to Singapore on November 19, Singh said he attaches "great importance" to it and looked forward to holding wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on deepening our economic, trade, cultural and people-to-people relations.
"Singapore is a key partner for us in the region. India"s 'Look East' policy started with our engagement with Singapore, and that country has been among the strongest advocates of greater cooperation between South East Asia and India," he said.
Singapore is India's largest trading partner in ASEAN, and the second largest investor in India and was the first country with which India signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement in 2005. "Currently, we are in the process of a second review of this Agreement to make it work better for both of us," he said.
Singh said he also looked forward to unveiling a Marker and Bust of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in Singapore.
PTI