Sharma was speaking to journalists while returning with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Cambodia last night on special aircraft after attending the ASEAN and East Asia Summits.
So far, two rounds of negotiations have already taken place in this regard. India signed a Free Trade Agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in August, which will come into effect from January 1, and is committed to begin breaking duty barriers on goods.
The prime minister said he would hold bilateral meetings, among others, with Philippines President Gloria Macpagal Arroyo, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed an FTA in goods in August last year and are engaged in intense negotiations to expand this pact to include services and investments.
India has offered further pruning of its negative list of 560 items for Association of South East Asian Nations on which there will be no duty cuts
India had invited United States President Joe Biden to grace the occasion but he expressed inability to travel to New Delhi in January.
The United Progressive Alliance government will continue tax reforms, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
The upcoming round of talks, slated for October 11-12, is expected to be a stormy one.
In a recent note, the global brokerage firm said India now commands a weight of 19 per cent in the above-mentioned portfolio as compared to 18.2 per cent in September 2023. India, it said, is a large liquid market and remains a counter-weight to North Asia if a slowdown in the West occurs and China's recovery disappoints.
This is possibly the first time Hasina's daughter will be by her mother's side during an official visit to close neighbour and ally India, and analysts believe this to be significant in many ways.
The proposed India-Thailand free trade agreement (FTA) will have to wait for some more time to become operational, as there has been no headway in negotiations on the India-Asean treaty on free trading of goods.
US President Biden was invited to the Republic Day celebrations by Prime Minister Modi during the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Garcetti said.
India and the 10-member-group signed the landmark agreement on Thursday in Bangkok. Malaysia International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said 71 per cent Malaysian goods would enjoy duty-free access to India by 2013 and another 9 per cent by 2016, while tariffs for the remaining 10 per cent would come down to 5 per cent.
There have been growing global concerns over China's sweeping claims of sovereignty over all of the South China Sea, a huge source of hydrocarbons.
Without mentioning the boundary dispute, the spokesperson said that China-India relations have been stable on the whole and "our two sides have maintained dialogue and communication at various levels".
'No Cold War should be reignited and no Ukraine-style crisis should be repeated in Asia'
Cognizant Technology Solutions has restructured its global growth markets (GGM) by appointing two internal leaders who will now share the responsibility. The move follows the exit of former GGM leader Rob Walker last month and is among the slew of leadership changes the company has seen in the recent past. GGM refers to the company's emerging markets outside of North America.
There is no official word either from China or from India on who will represent Beijing at the upcoming G20 summit.
Countries negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) need to keep in mind eight "myths" which surround these pacts, like they lead to accelerated increase in exports and promote domestic manufacturing, according to a report by think-tank GTRI. The report by Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) claims to dispel these 'myths', including that FTAs weaken the WTO (World Trade Organisation), countries are rushing to do FTAs, and these pacts promote investment and lower prices. It is "erroneously" believed that most world trade happens through the FTA route, but in reality, it is less than 20 per cent, said the report titled 'FTAs: Fabulous, Futile, or Flawed?'.
A joint statement was issued by US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa after their in-person meeting in Phnom Penh on the margins of the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
It took India and the Indian Army to show to the world that enough is enough and to challenge the neighbourhood bully, he said.
India cannot afford to adopt any coercive measures against the military even if it disapproves the military takeover, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
Nifty50's earnings growth, estimated at 20 per cent by global research and brokerage firm Jefferies for financial year 2023-24 (FY24), will be amongst the top three in the Asian region, and is likely to outperform peers. Asean 40 index with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth and Straits Times Index (STI) with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth are the only two other indices in the Asian region that are likely to outperform India, suggests the recent Jefferies report, coauthored by Mahesh Nandurkar, their managing director along with Abhinav Sinha and Nishant Poddar.
Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday reported a 28 per cent rise in exports at 263,068 units in 2022, its highest ever overseas shipments. The company's previous highest exports was achieved in 2021 with 205,450 units. The highest exported models in 2022 were Dzire, Swift, S-Presso, Baleno and Brezza, the company said in a statement.
The 55 basis point (bps) spike in the US 10-year bond yield, triggered by a combination of FOMC's hawkish commentary and BOJ's relaxation of the yield control curve (YCC) has made analysts cautious on Asian equities and expect them to trade sideways in the short-to-medium term.
It will be Putin's first participation in a multilateral summit after a mercenary group launched a short-lived armed rebellion last week that rocked Moscow.
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
A Chinese fighter jet performed an unsafe manoeuvre after it came as close as 20 feet within a United States military aircraft over the South China sea, The Hill reported on Thursday citing the US Indo-Pacific Command.
As US President Joe Biden launched a new trade deal with 12 Indo-Pacific nations, including India, to enhance trade, economic and investment opportunities, China, which sees the pact as a threat to its dominance in the region, went on the offensive against it, promising more opening up, while the official media here termed it as "economic Nato".
India, along with Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, is expected to sustain growth in the medium-term in Asia region, replacing China as the key growth driver, Morgan Stanley and Nomura said in two separate reports released on Monday. While Morgan Stanley projected a 6.2 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for India in FY24, Nomura estimated the Indian economy to grow at 5.9 per cent in 2023. "Even with a slowing China, we expect GDP growth in Asia to sustainably outperform other emerging markets and the US. India and Southeast Asia are set to be the fastest-growing economies this decade.
In its explanation of vote, India said 'we find that our views have not been reflected in the draft being considered for adoption today. We would like to reiterate that a consultative and constructive approach involving the neighbouring countries and the region, remains important as the international community strives for the peaceful resolution of the issue'.
'There's no pro-China tilt in BRICS.' 'All these countries want to be close to China, but they are all good friends of India also.'
Ending its uncomfortable journey in India after eight years, Malaysia-based AirAsia Group on Wednesday said it has exited AirAsia India by selling its remaining 16.67 per cent stake to Tata Group-owned Air India for Rs 155.64 crore. Later in the day, Air India said it has begun the process of creating a single low-cost carrier subsidiary by merging AirAsia India and Air India Express. A working group consisting AirAsia India CEO Sunil Bhaskaran and Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh has been formed for the two carriers' integration, which is expected to take approximately 12 months, it added.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Monday denied the media reports of taking Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to hospital with a heart condition and called it the 'height of fakery', several media reported.
The resolution also pushes back against People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that Arunachal Pradesh is PRC territory, which is a part of the PRC's increasingly aggressive and expansionist policies.
India's national security focus has shifted from the western border to the eastern one. But our trade with China keeps rising. This trade is against our interest, because most of it comprises of Chinese imports, argues Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Modi on Saturday left for Egypt after concluding his state visit during which he held wide-ranging talks with President Joe Biden and addressed the joint session of the US Congress.
'Three decades of intensive discussions, protocols and Confidence Building Measures were jettisoned one fine morning in 2020.' 'The primary lesson that has been learnt is that that there is no reliability about the Chinese.'
Unless the anarchy in Manipur is brought under control quickly, we are sowing the seeds of a flare up in the entire North East and the end of our dream of checking China in South East Asia, warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Both countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year.
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