Powered by the dynamic growth of India and China, East Asia has transformed dramatically and is surging ahead becoming the biggest growth story of recent times, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong said on Wednesday.
Opening the plenary on Tuesday morning, Singapore premier Lee Hsein Loong said the ASEAN leaders will strive to prevent the Myanmar issue "from obstructing efforts to deepen integration and build an ASEAN Community" after the grouping abruptly withdrew an invitation to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari to address the summit following Yangaon's objection.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday began hectic parleys with his counterparts from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam to narrow down differences on finalising the much-awaited Asean-India Free Trade Agreement. However, the Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said that the 10-member Asean had put the trade talks "on hold" until India came up with a more progressive way forward.
India on Wednesday asked industralised countries not to put the onus on developing nations in bringing down greenhouse emission levels as it would affect their development.
In a significant development, Australia on Tuesday promised to support the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and indicated its readiness to supply uranium to India.
India said on Tuesday it views the 16-member forum of the East Asia Summit as an opportunity to create a regional architecture for cooperation and deeper integration in the Asia Pacific region.
Maintaining that both India and the US are seriously trying to sort out the 'outstanding issues', he, however, refused to specify when the agreement will be firmed up.
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