india ASEAN april92002

Indian Premier Vows Closer Ties With Asean
 
 
SINGAPORE, April 9 (Bernama) -- India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Tuesday wrapped up his first official visit to Singapore, voicing his country's commitment to step up ties with Asean.
Vaipayee said that in the first decades of its independence, relationship between the two sides was not fully realised because of divergences in economy, politics and security resulting from the Cold War.

"Fortunately, we have emerged from this straitjacket. The end of the Cold War removed the hurdles to close India-Asean cooperation," he said.

Vaipayee, who arrived on Sunday, said that India and Asean were poised to intensify political and security dialogue as the two regions grapple with the issue of international terrorism.

He also called on countries in the region to forge cooperation in technology and to boost trade with each other to cushion the impact of saturation in external markets. -- BERNAMA

 

times of india

PTI [ TUESDAY, APRIL 09, 2002  11:42:31 AM ]
INGAPORE: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday pledged to strengthen India's economic ties with the South East Asia saying the region is a "focal point of India's foreign policy".

"I speak today on Asean and the Asia Pacific ... because this region is one of the focal points of India's foreign policy, strategic concerns and economic concerns," Vajpayee said in 'The Annual Singapore Lecture 2002' here before departing for the second leg of the two-nation tour to Cambodia.

"India's relations with Singapore have grown considerably over the last decade, but a vast potential still remains untapped," he added.

Admitting that India did not attain the full promise of "our relationship" (Asean), Vajpayee said "this was not a reflection of a lower priority".

"It was a consequence of the divergences in economic ideology, political outlook and security assumptions much of which the Cold War imposed on us.

"Fortunately, we have emerged from this straitjacket. The end of the Cold War removed the hurdles to close India-Asean cooperation," he said.

Vajpayee said India has always sought to integrate its strengths in various social, scientific, and economic sectors into the relevant Asean processes.

"We are in process of jointly developing an India-Asean Vision 2020, as a roadmap to our mutually desired objectives," he said emphasisng India's commitment to intensifying its engagement with the regional grouping.

"The countries in our region are today at the forefront of developing and introducing cutting edge technologies into their economies. We are in the very epicentre of the Knowledge Revolution.

"This provides us with a major opportunity to overcome our historical disabilities and to compress the time gap between successive levels of development," Vajpayee said.

Quoting Information Technology sector as an example, the Prime Minister said: "Each of our countries has achieved expertise and even dominance in certain areas of technology. It is crucial that we should cooperate in exploiting the synergies between us, rather than duplicating capacities or undercutting each other."