Indian PM’s remarks at 5th East Asia Summit

PM’s remarks at the fifth East Asia Summit

October 30, 2010

I reaffirm India’s commitment to the East Asia Summit process. India’s engagement with South East and East Asia has been a pillar of our foreign policy since the 1990s. We have participated in each of the Summits and in the many sectoral meetings. India believes in the centrality of ASEAN’s role in the EAS process.

This is a special Summit, marking the 5th Anniversary of the East Asia Summit. The EAS has come a long way since its first meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December 2005. Today, it has become an integral part of the regional architecture and a purposeful vehicle for community building in the region.

The EAS process has over the years grappled with immediate challenges such as disaster management and pandemics and energy security in 2007, the global economic crisis in 2008 and the climate change negotiations in 2009. This is in addition to the ongoing task of creating structures and institutions which lead to the overall goal of forging a wider Asian community encompassing the economic, political, security, social, cultural and people-to-people spheres.

The economic weight is shifting in favour of Asia, and it is seen as the engine of global growth. It has weathered the global economic crisis well. The EAS process is creating prosperity in the region, and helping to bridge gaps between sub-regions and nations in Asia. We are on the right track.

The theme of the Summit - from vision to action - is most appropriate. We need to move from policy declarations to greater functional cooperation.

I welcome the entry of the United States and Russia as participants in the EAS process. The EAS will benefit from there experience while remaining an ASEAN-led process.

I would like to complement the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) for their work in promoting regional integration by providing useful research and practical policy recommendations on regional connectivity, trade, investment, energy and the environment. ERIA has submitted a report on the Comprehensive Asian Development Plan (CADP) and identified three corridors for building infrastructure, connectivity and industrial activity that will support the realization of a community in the region. One of these is for a Mekong – India Economic Corridor.

Thanks to the collective efforts of G-20, the world economy has gradually stabilized even though the recovery remains fragile. Growth in developing countries would be greatly helped if threats of new protectionist measures in industrialized countries are firmly resisted and existing barriers to trade are reduced. Towards this end, a successful completion of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations is important.

India welcomes further progress on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement for East Asia (CEPEA) process. Till last year we had signed CEPA Agreements with Singapore and ROK and a Trade in Goods Agreement with the ASEAN. In the last one year we have completed negotiations on a CEPA with Japan and Malaysia. An Agreement on Trade in Services and Investment is under negotiation with the ASEAN.

Forthcoming G-20 Summit in Seoul should focus on development. I am happy that development has been included as an item for discussion.

Indian economy is expected to grow at the rate of 8.5% this year. We hope to achieve a growth rate of 9.10% next year. This will encourage two way trade between India and ASEAN Member States.

We welcome the first meeting of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Plus Eight in Hanoi earlier this month. India supports practical and pragmatic cooperation through this new forum by building trust and confidence among all countries. We believe that in a step by step process, at a pace comfortable to all, this forum can make a meaningful contribution to building open and transparent security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tackling the growing threats to security – non-State actors, security of sea-lanes, piracy, human trafficking, terrorism and protection of global commons – would require concerted response.

At the 4th East Asia Summit, EAS member countries had supported the establishment of the University as a non-state, non-profit, secular and self-governing international institution to bring together the brightest and the best in East Asia. I am happy to report that the Nalanda University Bill has been passed by both Houses of the Indian Parliament earlier this year. The Nalanda Mentor Group (headed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen) will act as the interim Governing Board of the University till such time as the members of the Governing Board have been nominated. The statutes of the University are being drafted. Land has been acquired for the University. We invite EAS member countries to participate in the Nalanda University project. I hope that Nalanda University will be an important element in the community that we hope to build in the East Asian region.

India supports a collaborative approach to energy issues. Our present energy policy involves adopting a multi-pronged strategy by broadening our energy mix, including nuclear energy.

We want positive outcome in Cancun at the 16th Conference of Parties. It should build upon the Copenhagen Accord. India is doing everything possible within the limitation of her own resources to contribute to the global action on climate change. Under our ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change, we have embarked upon measures to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy intensity and enhance the share of renewable energy in the energy mix.

We listened with great interest to remarks of the President of the Asian Development Bank. In near future, we believe that Asia’s growth and intra-ASEAN trade can make an important contribution to global recovery.

Hanoi

October 30, 2010

(Source: http://meaindia.nic.in/mystart.php?id=530116615; Accessed 12 Dec. 2010)

Indian PM's Statement at 8th ASEAN-India Summit

Prime Minister’s statement at the 8^th India-ASEAN Summit

October 30, 2010

I thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for your warm welcome and generous hospitality. It is a pleasure for all of us to gather here on the auspicious occasion of the commemoration of 1000 years of the establishment of the city of Hanoi.

I deeply condole the loss of lives and property in the recent tsunami in Indonesia and floods in Vietnam. I wish the people of Indonesia and Vietnam an early recovery from the unfortunate tragedy.

I thank Cambodia, and especially Prime Minister Hun Sen, for his strong support to India as country Coordinator and look forward to our continuing close association with Cambodia.

For the past five years the achievement of the India-ASEAN partnership has been to initiate cooperation in a diverse range of sectors covering political and security ties, economic cooperation and the promotion of socio-cultural links.

I commend the officials of both sides for developing a Plan of Action to implement the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity for the years 2010-2015. It is an ambitious road map and the 82 Action Points reflect the vast potential and desire to develop a multi-faceted India-ASEAN relationship.

Our experience of implementation shows that we need to work very hard at all levels if we have to accelerate the pace of engagement as outlined in the Plan of Action. I recall that the theme of the ASEAN Summit this year is “Vision to Action”. This theme is equally appropriate for our own partnership.

I invite the ASEAN Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan to visit India to review the mechanisms and procedures in place so that the pace of implementing agreed projects can be speeded up.

I would urge that the two sides make further efforts to identify concrete projects for cooperation under the India-ASEAN Science & Technology Fund, India-ASEAN Green Fund and the US $ 50 million India-ASEAN Fund announced last year.

Excellencies,

India believes that ASEAN is the core around which the process of economic integration of the Asia-Pacific region should be built. India’s economy has been growing rapidly for the past few years. This year we hope to achieve a growth rate of 8.5%. In the coming years, we hope to sustain a growth rate of 9-10% per year which will offer many opportunities for trade and investment. Our government has undertaken programmes for a massive transformation of rural India that is creating a huge and booming rural market for goods and services.

We hope that all formalities for implementing the India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement by all ASEAN States are completed at an early date. The conclusion of a Services and Investment Agreement will be an important step in our goal of comprehensive economic cooperation.

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in people to people exchanges as a result of better air connectivity between India and ASEAN. More than 3 million Indian tourists visit ASEAN every year and about 380 flights connect Indian and ASEAN cities every week. This is well below the potential.

Excellencies

We invite many more tourists from the ASEAN countries to visit India to see the splendor of its rich cultural heritage. I am happy that the text of the ASEAN-India MoU for cooperation in Tourism has been finalized. I am also pleased to note that ASEAN will soon establish an ASEAN Promotional Chapter for tourism in Mumbai.

As a concrete measure, I am happy to announce that we will extend our visa on arrival facility to nationals of Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and Laos with effect from 1st of January 2011.

We have always accorded high priority to the countries covered by the “Initiative for ASEAN integration”. We hope to upgrade the level of youth exchanges as well as establish Vocational Training Centres in each of these countries.

Connectivity is another important area of our cooperation. As a further measure to support the ASEAN Master Plan on Connectivity, we will offer 100 IT scholarships to each of the 10 ASEAN countries over the next 5 years.

Science & Technology should be another focus area for our cooperation. We are ready to set up a Centre for Tracking and Data Reception and an Imaging facility for the ASEAN countries. This Centre would utilize data provided by Indian remote sensing satellites and harness it for multiple developmental applications. I propose a meeting of the heads of our space agencies in India which could work out exact details of cooperation.

Our cooperation in political and security matters is progressing well, including through expanded bilateral exchanges. These are important areas of our cooperation not only because of the common threats that we face but also because such cooperation helps to built mutual trust and understanding.

India looks forward to hosting the commemorative India-ASEAN Summit in India in the year 2012. This will be a land mark event and we must begin preparations early. The Eminent Persons Group should be set up quickly so that it can formulate a vision statement towards a long term strategic partnership between ASEAN and India that could be the theme of the Summit.

Thank you.

Hanoi
October 30, 2010

(Source: http://meaindia.nic.in/mystart.php?id=530116614; Accessed 12 Dec. 2010)