“Our engagement driven by common priorities bringing peace, stability and prosperity to the region,” Modi told Asean leaders, adding the grouping was central to India’s Act East Policy.
“We are willing to take concrete steps to enhance cooperation in cyber security, de-radicalisation and counterterrorism,” he said.
India is keen to expand its ties with the 10-nation grouping — Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand – that has a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion and an annual economic growth rate of 4.6%.
Securing seas was a shared responsibility, Modi said, adding sea lanes were “life lines of global trade”. India supported freedom of navigation based on United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, he added.
Some Asean member countries are caught in a conflict with China over the South China Sea, which the Asian giant stakes claim to.
In July, an international court had ruled in favour of The Philippines, declaring illegal some of China’s artificial islands and invalidated its claims to almost the entire waterway, one the world’s busiest trade routes.
Earlier in the day, Modi held a bilateral meeting with host Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.
Modi is also scheduled to meeting South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the state counsellor and foreign minister of Myanmar and US President Barack Obama.
Modi and Obama are likely to discuss regional and multilateral issues. In their meeting on Wednesday, Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe pledged to strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism, trade and investments.
The India-Asean Summit will be followed by the 11th East Asia Summit, which will be attended Asean leaders, Modi and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Russia.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:www.digitalindia.indiaincorporated.com)
