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Journalism of Courage
In a bid to step up India’s engagement with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to make a strong pitch for improving regional connectivity to give a boost to trade and people-to-people contact at the upcoming summit meeting next week.
Modi is slated to leave for Myanmar on Tuesday to attend the 12th ASEAN-India summit on November 12 and the 9th East Asian summit on November 13 on the first leg of his three-nation foreign tour that will also take him to Australia and Fiji.
Giving a broad overview of the summits, Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, said India is keen that the next ASEAN-India five-year plan of action starting 2016 should focus on improving people-to-people contact, ramping up trade relations and reinforcing the strategic engagement.
The plan will also focus on security architecture in the region, he said. There could be progress on a project to develop a 3,200-km highway linking India, Myanmar and Thailand that was originally envisaged to be completed by end-2017. It is now expected to be completed in 2018. Wadhwa said India and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc hope to dovetail the connectivity plans with this highway project.
Modi in a tweet earlier this week said that India’s ties with ASEAN are “deep rooted” and that strengthening relations with the nations in the grouping are an important part of its ‘Act East’ policy”.
He said he looked forward to meeting leaders attending the two summits in Myanmar. “ASEAN is central to our dream of an Asian century, where India will play a crucial role. Am sure the meetings there would be fruitful,” he had said.
