Reacting to Monday’s announcement that China and the Asean countries would establish a free-trade area, Indian officials said that the South Asian neighbor would “examine” the prospect of a free-trade area with Asean.
The potential free-trade area between India and Asean, and the subsequent opening of markets, could be formed within 10 years, said Indian External Minister Yashwant Sinha at a news conference on Tuesday.
“We already have a task force which has been agreed to when the economic ministers met a few months ago in September in Brunei—The [Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee] suggested that the same task force would perhaps be asked to examine the possibility of a road map which will ultimately result in a free-trade area between Asean and India in a 10-year time frame.”
Although the Indian premier discussed other matters with Asean leaders Tuesday during the first Asean-Indian Summit, such as bringing technology to some Asean countries, increased transportation links between the two regions and other financial opportunities, the free-trade agreement appeared to take prominence.
Sinha said the free-trade-area task force would submit its report to Asean at the next Asean Summit, scheduled for October 2003 in Bali, Indonesia. He added that the possible India-Asean free-trade-area concessions would be available “earlier than the rest”—a loosely veiled reference to the China-Asean free-trade agreement.
Asean countries expressed support for this idea, Sinha said.
Sinha deflected comments that India introduced the India-Asean free-trade area merely to offset the influence of China, saying that India is acting on its own with only Indian and Asean interests in mind.
“I don’t think any of our actions here are guided on account of [the China-Asean free-trade area],” he said. “We are not looking at any region in the world—certainly not Asean—with the prism of either [Asean-China relations] or any other bilateral relationship in Asean.
“We are convinced that Asean is equally and as strongly interested in this relationship with India—we cannot overlook the interest Asean has in this cooperation,” he said.
Although terrorism dominated much of the discussions during the Asean Summit, Sinha said Vajpayee had no “in-depth” discussions with any Asean leader regarding terrorism or security in the region.
A joint statement between India and Asean released on Tuesday stated that during the Indian-Asean meeting, leaders also “exchanged views” on nontraditional security threats, people smuggling and drug trafficking.
This is the Vajpayee’s second visit to Cambodia in 2002. During his first visit in April, Vajpayee pledged to send a judge to Cambodia for the stalled Khmer Rouge trials if the UN decided to pull out of negotiations.
