Indian PM leaves Bali for Singapore after attending ASEAN, East Asia Summit

Bali: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today left Bali for Singapore after attending the India-ASEAN and East Asia Summits at which he endeavoured for further deepening his country’s engagement with the countries of the region.
“Partnership with ASEAN is an essential component of our ‘Look East’ policy,” the Prime Minister had said before embarking for the Indonesian island resort.
During his stay here, the Prime Minister reviewed the implementation of the India-ASEAN Plan of Action for 2010-2015 with the ASEAN Leaders. In a bid to give greater push to India-ASEAN trade and economic ties, Dr Singh called upon the 10-member grouping of the Southeast Asian countries to ensure early conclusion of a Services and Investment Agreement, and also emphasised the need of greater physical connectivity with the countries of the region, and increasing cooperation in maritime security. He also shared his ideas with the ASEAN leaders for the India-ASEAN Summit which India would be holding for the first time next year to commemorate 20 years of its dialogue partnership with ASEAN. India sees the East Asia Summit as the principal forum to devise an open and inclusive architecture of regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. The Prime Minister took stock of ASEAN-India relations which have witnessed a rapid period of growth in the past 20 years, from the time that India became a sectoral dialogue partner in 1992, a full dialogue partner in 1996 and a Summit level partner in 2002. There is a mutuality of interest in the ASEAN-India relationship route from September 2012 to May 2013, and an intensive year-long calendar of cultural activities. The Trade-in-Goods Agreement between India and ASEAN is now fully functional. Efforts are on to conclude the Services-and-Investment Agreements which will complement the Trade-in-Goods Agreement. Accompanied by National security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, Principal Secretary Pulok Chaterji and wife Gursharan Kaur, the Prime Minister had come here on Thursday. The highlight of his visit were his meetings with US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao with whom he discussed a range of bilateral, regional and global developments and reaffirmed India’s commitment to work more closely with the two countries. Mr Obama making it a point to have a bilateral with Dr Singh is being seen by observers here as an attempt by the US leader to give a message that India has to play an important role in East Asia.