India, Asean to sign free trade blueprint

NEW DELHI: India will sign a blueprint for a free trade and non-aggression treaty with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) next week during the second India-Asean summit meeting in Bali, foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal told reporters here on Friday.
India and Asean will also make a joint declaration on combatting terrorism, which will be politically significant for it would mean that the Asean is in agreement with India on the definition of terrorism.Prime Minister A B Vajpayee is leaving on Sunday for the 10th Asean summit, to be held on the Indonesian island.
The Prime Minister will then go to Thailand on a bilateral visit before returning home on October 12. The substantial part of the Prime Minister’s agenda will be to advance India’s business links with Asean countries, but there is also a strong political content of the visit which will be provided by his discussions with the Asean leaders as well as some other summit participants such as the Chinese premier on bilateral relations and multilateral issues, including terrorism and Iraq.
Sibal said the last glitches in the negotiations for the ‘‘framework agreement on comprehensive economic cooperation’’ between India and Asean had been ironed out and the concerns of some Asean members like Vietnam and the Philippines had been addressed. The details of the agreement, Sibal said, will be made known after it is signed in Bali. He, however, pointed out that in the first India-Asean summit last year, the establishment of an India-Asean free trade area (FTA) in 10 years had been envisaged.
The blueprint for the FTA, he indicated, provides two timeframes — one for the six of the more advanced Asean countries and another for the four less advanced Asean nations. During the Prime Minister’s visit to Thailand, a separate bilateral blueprint for an India-Thailand FTA will also be signed. Besides, the two countries will sign two other memorandums of understanding (MoUs) — one, for cooperation in agriculture, science and technology and the other, for cooperation in tourism.
India became a ‘‘summit partner’ of the Asean last year, providing the scope for annual India-Asean summit meetings coinciding with the annual Asean summit, giving it the right to participate in meetings even though it’s not a member. As part of its ‘‘look east’’ policy, India has been keen on raising the level of its relations with the Asean member-countries both as a group and individually.