PM to attend India-ASEAN, East Asia Summits

New Delhi, Jan 9: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will leave here onJanuary 13 to attend the 5th India-ASEAN Summit and the 2nd East AsiaSummit (EAS) at Cebu in the Philippines on January 14-15 as part ofIndia's efforts to give a fresh impetus to its 'Look East Policy.'

Mr NRavi, Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, told reportershere today that the India-ASEAN Summit, to be held on January 14, wouldreview the ongoing cooperation in various fields, including informationtechnology, economic assistance to less developed CLMV (Cambodia, Laos,Myanmar and Vietnam) countries, tourism, transportation andinfrastructure.

The EAS, which will be attended by 16 countries of the region onJanuary 15, will focus on energy security, education, avian influenza,natural disaster management and steps to take the process of regionalintegration forward.

The East Asian leaders will issue the Cebu Declaration on Energy Security on the same day.

Dr Singh, who will reach Cebu on the evening of January 13, willalso have bilateral meetings with several leaders attending the twosummits.

ASEAN brings together Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia,Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Apart from the 10 ASEAN members and India, the EAS will be attended by Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will reach Cebutomorrow night to attend ministerial meetings ahead of the two summitson January 11 and 12.

He will also attend the Mekong-Ganga cooperation meeting onJanuary 12 at which India will assume the chairmanship of the grouping.The group, which brings together India and South-East Asian countriesthrough which the Mekong river flows, will focus on cooperation in theareas of tourism, culture, education and transportation, designed toenhance people-to-people contacts.

India has been extending scholarships to students of the region, especially in the area of Buddhist studies.

In particular, the meeting will discuss the proposed Delhi-Hanoirailway link, for which India's RITES has already completed apreliminary study. There is also a proposal to connect Laos andThailand with a second "friendship bridge" which, when completed, wouldmake it possible to travel by road from India all the way to theVietnamese coast. The bridge is part of the East-West corridor mootedby the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The President of the ADB will present a report on the East Asianeconomic and financial situation to the EAS on January 15 after theleaders attend the opening session and a retreat in the first half ofthe day.

Dr Singh is scheduled to return home on the night of January 15.

In response to a query, Mr Ravi said details of the bilateral meetingswere still being finalised. He said the India-ASEAN summit woulddiscuss the progress made so far in the negotiations on the India-ASEANFree Trade Area (FTA) agreement. India-ASEAN trade has grown ten-foldfrom 2.3 billion dollars in 1990 to 23.3 billion dollars at present.India says that the figures show the potential that exists to step upcooperation in this area.

He said the declaration on energy security would look at issuessuch as conservation and efficient use of energy, alternate sourcessuch as biofuels and regional solutions to the energy security question.

Mr Ravi said countries such as Singapore, China, Japan and SouthKorea had supported India's Nalanda project. He said India had alreadyconveyed details of the project, which seeks to revive the ancient seatof learning in India, to countries in the region at the officials level.

Singapore had recently said that the project should emerge as an"icon of Asian renaissance" and a "centre of civilisational dialogueand inter-faith understanding."

UNI
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