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India seeks closer ties with ASEAN: PM

India is seeking to develop closer economic, political and security ties with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Tuesday.

"This region is one of the focal points of India's foreign policy, strategic concerns and economic interests," Vajpayee said in a public lecture on the last day of a visit to the city-state.

Vajpayee left Singapore on Tuesday along with a delegation of ministers and businessmen on his way to Cambodia.

The prime minister said India was currently seeking to intensify its engagement with the region by developing what he called "an India-ASEAN Vision 2020 road map" to identify mutually desired objectives.

ASEAN groups Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Vajpayee said he was looking forward to meeting ASEAN leaders in Cambodia at a summit later this year, which could help promote creative economic links.

"The current global economic slowdown should also exhort us to more actively explore avenues for generating and meeting demand on a regional basis, so that we are cushioned against the impact of saturation of external markets," he said.

The prime minister said ethnic, nationalist violence and terrorism in Asia prevented closer relations.

"We grapple with a bewildering array of security threats, of which international terrorism has recently thrust itself dramatically into our consciousness," he said.

Admitting that India did not attain the full promise of "our relationship," Vajpayee said, "this was not a reflection of a lower priority".

"It was a consequence of the divergences in economic ideology, political outlook and security assumptions much of which the Cold War imposed on us.

"Fortunately, we have emerged from this straitjacket. The end of the Cold War removed the hurdles to close India-ASEAN co-operation," he said.

Vajpayee said India has always sought to integrate its strengths in various social, scientific, and economic sectors into the relevant ASEAN processes.

"The countries in our region are today at the forefront of developing and introducing cutting edge technologies into their economies. We are in the very epicentre of the Knowledge Revolution.

"This provides us with a major opportunity to overcome our historical disabilities and to compress the time gap between successive levels of development," Vajpayee said.

Quoting the information technology sector as an example, the prime minister said: "Each of our countries has achieved expertise and even dominance in certain areas of technology. It is crucial that we should co-operate in exploiting the synergies between us, rather than duplicating capacities or undercutting each other."

Vajpayee said, "the current global economic slowdown should also exhort us to more actively explore avenues for generating and meeting demand on a regional basis, so that we are cushioned against the impact of saturation of external markets".

"The move towards greater economic liberalisation in the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Investment Area reflects this recognition. India seeks a mutually beneficial partnership in this endeavour," he said.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

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