With terrorism posing a major threat to the collective security of the region, India and ASEAN have agreed to fight the menace together.

North East News Agency

After SAARC countries, ASEAN nations along with India have now united to combat terrorism. With terrorism posing a major threat to the collective security of the region, India and ASEAN agreed to fight together the menace and strengthen maritime security in the piracy-infested Malacca Straits.

“Terrorism is still a major threat to our collective security in this region. We are saddened with the loss of lives as a result of the   recent bombings in India (serial blast in Delhi in October),” Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who is the current head of ASEAN said at the fourth India-ASEAN summit.

“We believe that it is timely to proceed with implementing some form of concrete cooperation based on the ASEAN-India Declaration on cooperation to combat international terrorism which was adopted in Bali,” he said.

Corraborating Abdullah’s viewpoint, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh agreed to    further cooperation in these two areas Issue of intensifying cooperation   in the field of terrorism betwen India-ASEAN figured prominently in the discussions. Both sides agreed to combat terrorism and India has agreed to cooperate with the littoral states     to ensure the security of the Malacca Straits.

India also pledged five million dollars for initiating several schemes in ASEAN countries and announced a one million dollars contribution to the ASEAN Development Fund. Addressing the ASEAN leaders, the Prime Minister offered India’s expertise in making generic drugs to south east Asian nations to deal with the avian influenza.

ASEAN sought India’s assistance in dealing with the menace of terrorism, fighting diseases like avian flu besides pressing for greater economic cooperation including a FTA. India, for its part, asked ASEAN to invest its huge surplus in the country’s infrastructure development, a major deficit hindering economic growth.

Dr. Manmohan Singh announced a slew of proposals at the Summit that included centres for English language training in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. A tele-medicine and tele-education network for the four developing Asean countries was also proposed. The four countries would be linked with India through a satellite-based network.

On the energy front, the two sides decided to step up cooperation in bringing about energy security in the region considering most of the countries in the region were not endowed with fossil fuel.

The two sides said they would cooperate in abundantly available non-conventional energy sources like solar, tidal and wind power. In a bid to enhancing connectivity, Sikri said road connectivity has already been established between India and Mayanmar which is being extended to other countries in the Southeast Asian region, specifically Thailand.

During the bilateral meeting the Prime Minister had with his Japanese counterpart, Tokyo agreed to continue its joint efforts with India, Brazil and Germany for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

On the occasion, Japanese Prime Minister Junichro Koizumi extended an invitation to Singh to visit Tokyo next year to which the Indian Prime Minister agreed to in principle. In Singh’s meeting with the South Korean leader Roh Moo Hyun, Seoul evinced interest in stepping up cooperation in oil and gas apart from the steel sector in which a South Korean firm Posco has signed a MoU for setting up a 12 billion dollar steel plant in Orissa.  Itmay be mentioned here that President A P J Abdul Kalam would be visiting South Korea next year.

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