The Hindu : Sinha to represent India at ACD meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

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Sinha to represent India at ACD meet

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 17. The Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, will stand in for the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, at the two-day meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Bangkok.

The inaugural meeting of the ACD, which will be an informal forum for Asian Foreign Ministers to exchange views on issues of mutual interest, will be attended by representatives of select Asian countries, including Pakistan and China.

The June 18 and 19 meeting is aimed at promoting independence among Asian countries in all areas of cooperation.

This is expected to help expand the market within Asia and increase the bargaining power of Asian countries instead of competing among themselves.

The forum will also aim to build upon Asia's potentials and strengths by supplementing and complementing existing cooperative frameworks as well as filling in the missing linkages for Asia-wide cooperation.

Though the ACD meeting's essential focus is economic cooperation, there were indications that Thailand would be "happy'' to provide an opportunity to India and Pakistan to hold a bilateral dialogue on the sidelines of the meeting.

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