In a clear attempt to mount pressure on India, the East Asia Summit (EAS) today called upon its member states to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

“We encouraged those EAS participating countries that have not acceded to the CTBT to do so as it would serve as an impetus for having a successful NPT Review Conference,” said the Chairman’s statement adopted at the end of the day-long summit. It noted the intention of the Philippines in its capacity as President of the May 2010 NPT Review Conference to undertake wide and transparent consultations with parties to achieve a successful outcome of the conference.

India is among the countries which have refused to sign both the CTBT and the NPT, contending that the treaties were discriminatory in nature.

The summit, which was also attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reaffirmed the member states’ commitment to combat people smuggling and trafficking in persons. It stressed the importance of continued bilateral and regional cooperative effort to contain people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crimes.

The summit leaders welcomed India’s initiative to revive the Nalanda University located in Bihar, noting that it was a great ancient centre of intellectual activity in Buddhist philosophy, mathematics, medicine and other disciplines.

In his statement at the summit, the Indian PM noted that many of the members of the grouping faced the spectre of terrorism. There were growing threats from non-traditional sources, such as piracy, transnational groups and extremist ideologies.

On economic integration of the East Asia region, Manmohan Singh said India had signed comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CEPA) agreements with Singapore and South Korea and a trade in goods agreement with ASEAN. “We are in discussions with Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia and other countries to conclude agreements of a similar nature,” he added.