Narendra Modi to attend ASEAN Summit in Bangkok today; meeting with counterparts from Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar on the cards

Bangkok: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on Sunday, after arriving in the Thai capital on Saturday for a three-day visit. Modi has said that India remains committed to a comprehensive and balanced outcome of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations and seeks balance across goods, services and investments and also within each pillar. [caption id=“attachment_7591551” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the crowd during the ‘Sawasdee PM Modi’ event in Bangkok. PTI[/caption] In an interview to Bangkok Post, the Prime Minister also said that a mutually beneficial RCEP, in which all sides gain reasonably, is in the interest of India and of all partners in the negotiation. “India remains committed to a comprehensive and balanced outcome from the ongoing RCEP negotiations. Its successful conclusion is in the interest of everyone involved. Hence, India seeks balance across goods, services and investments and also within each pillar,” he said. In his address to the Indian diaspora in Thailand, Modi said that India has rid itself of a big factor that sowed seeds of terrorism and separatism in the country, in a reference to the Centre’s move to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution that accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking at the Sawasdee PM Modi event in Bangkok, the Prime Minister said, “You all are aware that India has taken a decision to rid itself of a big factor that sowed the seeds of terrorism and separatism. Every Indian living in Thailand is aware of what that decision was.” The Prime Minister’s remark received a long-standing ovation and shouts of “Modi…Modi” from the crowd at the event. The Prime Minister said that this standing ovation was for the Indian parliament and parliamentarians. “When the motive of a decision is right, its echoes are heard all over the world. Today I can hear these echoes in Thailand as well,” he said. The Centre on 5 August abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in accordance to which the state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Thursday. Recounting his government’s achievements in the past five years, Modi said that as many as eight crore homes in India were provided free LPG connections in just three years. “This number is bigger than Thailand’s entire population.” Modi said that India announced itself open-defecation free on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, adding that his government is willing to take up challenges which were once considered insurmountable. The Prime Minister invited Indian community in Thailand to visit Kartarpur after the corridor connecting Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab’s Gurdaspur with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan is inaugurated on 9 November.