Prez advocates closer integration between Asean, India

New Delhi: Advocating closer integration between Asean and India, President Pranab Mukherjee said both parties should take full advantage of complementarities through more ambitious agreements and catalyse flows of investments.

In his speech at the banquet in honour of the delegates of the Asean-India Special Commemorative Summit here, he said a closer integration between Asean and India will be to the mutual benefit of the nations.

[caption id=“attachment_565512” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The President said geographic connectivity between ASEAN and India is a strategic asset and both have long-standing maritime links. PTI[/caption]

He said India has been consistent in its support to the evolution of Asean’s central and leading role in this region and endorsed objectives for an Asean Community by 2015, for a Master Plan on Asean Connectivity, the Initiative for Asean Integration and, most recently, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

“Our trade has surpassed our expectations. We are now looking at ways and means to enhance cooperation between our Small and Medium Enterprises and entrepreneurial sectors.

“We should take full advantage of our complementarities through more ambitious agreements; we should catalyse the flows of investments and goods and services, and link the synergies of our youth; we should facilitate the joint initiatives of the industrial sectors in our respective countries and we should improve the infrastructural capacity in our region to meet the aspirations and ambitions of our peoples,” he said.

Noting that the Asean-India Dialogue Partnership has reached a significant milestone this year, he said that in two decades of steady development, it has matured into a strategic partnership. “We all have a shared vision of promoting peace and stability and we are united in our dream of a new Asia full of promise and opportunities. There will be challenges but we are confident of our ability to co-operate and address these collectively and successfully in the interest of our peoples,” he said.

He said the essence of Asean and India partnership is that it facilitates and assists each partner country in strengthening its national programmes for sustainable economic and socio-cultural development and in contributing to the growing relevance of Asia globally.

“The Asia-Pacific region is today central to the global dialogue on political, economic and security issues. It is, therefore, natural that Asean and India, with their affinities and complementary capacities, come together for the definition of the new economic and security architecture in the region,” he said.

In the last decade, Mukherjee said, “As our respective capacities have grown, our partnership has become all the more relevant. “We have now succeeded in putting in place the structural framework for a comprehensive intensification of our cooperation; and we have developed several far-reaching and well conceived projects and programmes in our collective interest,” he said.

The President said geographic connectivity between Asean and India is a strategic asset and both have long-standing maritime links. “We have a bridge between us-of ideas, intellect, trade, and learning over the centuries. We are now adding a ‘digital’ dimension to this connectivity,” he said.

He said increasing co-operation in key sectors of tourism, agriculture, environment, renewable energy, information technology and space allows to develop innovative approaches to anticipate and address future challenges.

Mukherjee also noted that India’s engagement with the Asean has grown in a manner that is commensurate with the increase in the collective capacities, the growing economic integration and the evolving politico-security context in the Asia-Pacific.

“We have established a robust framework for cooperation under the Plan of Action to Implement the Asean-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity (2010-15). The Asean countries are central to India’s Look East Policy. Asean continues to be our natural partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

“I would also like to emphasise that our future priorities must attach special importance to our ongoing cooperation in the knowledge and skills sector and make it easier for our professionals, entrepreneurs, students and tourists to travel between our countries,” he said.

“Our growing engagement in areas such as maritime security and counter-terrorism is important to meet these common challenges,” he said.

PTI