Date:26/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/26/stories/2004112605631200.htm

International

India, ASEAN may sign strategic treaty

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, NOV. 25. India and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are likely to enter into a "partnership for peace, progress and shared prosperity" at a summit in Laos on November 30.

Sources told The Hindu that "there are plans for the partnership agreement." With this, India is now poised to join China and Japan, which have signed similar pacts with ASEAN. China and ASEAN signed a "declaration on strategic partnership for peace and prosperity" during the association's summit with several of its key dialogue partners in Bali in October, 2003. The ASEAN-Japan agreement was reached during a later commemorative summit between the two sides.

The sources said the idea was to create an "over-arching, all-encompassing" framework for cooperation between the two sides in the political, economic and socio-cultural domains. The India-ASEAN partnership would be launched on the basis of a "plan of action" which, too, was expected to be signed during the summit in Vientiane, the Laotian capital. China is expected to sign a follow-up "plan of action" on its "strategic partnership" with the ASEAN during a summit with key dialogue partners at the same venue early next week.

The ASEAN-India partnership would bring New Delhi "on a par with China and Japan in the most visible" manner, the sources said.

Car rally

An event that has generated interest in this region is the India-ASEAN car rally, which will be flagged off by leaders of the Association in Vientiane as an extended part of their summit with the Indian Prime Minister on November 30. The rally is being projected as a showpiece of possibilities in India-ASEAN cooperation.

India has entered into a framework agreement with ASEAN for comprehensive economic cooperation besides signing a joint declaration to combat international terrorism. At the summit in Bali, India agreed to the ASEAN's treaty of amity and cooperation as well.

Pending still is an earlier Indian offer to accede to the relevant ASEAN protocol about treating South East Asia as a nuclear weapons-free zone.

Although ASEAN has not officially made its position known, regional diplomatic sources point out that India is not recognised as a state in possession of nuclear weapons under the multilateral Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.