The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, November 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

ASEAN backs PM on free trade area

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, right, reaches out to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, left, as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen looks on during the opening of the India-ASEAN Summit on Tuesday in Phnom Penh. It's the first time India has attended an ASEAN Summit.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tours the Indian Cultural Centre on Tuesday in Phnom Penh. — AP/PTI photos

Phnom Penh, November 5
In a major initiative to boost trade and economic ties with South-East Asian countries, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today asked the ASEAN grouping to establish a free trade area (FTA) with India in the next 10 years and announced greater tariff concessions to its lesser developed members - Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Mr Vajpayee told the first India-ASEAN Summit here that a task force set up in Brunei in September to enhance trade linkages with India should explore the possibility of creating the FTA and submit its report to the next ASEAN Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in October, 2003.

It was also decided that India’s summit meeting with 10-member ASEAN, with $ 1 trillion yearly turnover, would be an annual affair, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters after the one-and-a-half hour summit-level talks between Mr Vajpayee and leaders of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei and Thailand.

In his opening remarks, Mr Vajpayee, sought to exchange intelligence with ASEAN members to combat terrorism, which Mr Sinha said, was “responded to by many of the states”.

Replying to questions, the minister said “The issue of terrorism was not discussed in depth at the summit”.

Mr Sinha said “There was support for the Prime Minister’s statement of the FTA so that it can come up as per the suggested target of 10 years.” PTI