Pledging India's commitment to strengthening multilateral organisations like World Trade Organisation, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Tuesday said there was a need to address the problem of declining prices for commodities and remove unjustified trade barriers being faced by exports of developing countries.

"The asymmetry in trading relations between developing and developed nations, the problem of declining prices for commodities from developing countries and all unjustified barriers to their exports must be addressed," he said in a lecture on Security and Development at the Institute of South East Asian studies in Singapore.

Stating that India was committed to continue to work with members of the international community for greater economic cooperation, Advani said there is a continued need to support efforts by the developing countries to integrate themselves and derive benefits from the multilateral trading system.

While trade liberalisation and globalisation can have both positive and negative effects on societies, he said the recent decades had seen a lot of positive activity in the area of regional cooperation.

Citing the instance of Asia, Advani said, "If there is any part of our continent where the face of the new and resurgent Asia can be seen, where proof can be seen that 21^st century will truly be an Asian century, it is ASEAN and its neighbourhood."