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International Trade and Finance

Notes For Asia to add this momentum would be necessary to bury the hatchet of earlier conflicts and rivalries
and move from the security of weapons to the firmer security of regional and global cooperation,
from the worn out concept of Mutually Assured Destruction to that of Mutually Assured Cooperation,
from the battle for humanity’s survival to that of growth for all. A brave new world beckons to us free
of destitution, deprivation and discrimination if only we could heed its call and move towards it in
one file, our steps in a harmonious blend.
22.2 ASEAN—INDIA

India’s emphasis on the resurgence of Asia and cooperation with Asian nations in the post colonial
era goes back to the days of the Asia Conference organized by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of
India’s independence, and the Bandung Conference later where the Indian leader offered Panchsheel
as an alternative to the policy of deterrence that was shaping the cold war world. The countries of the
South East Asian region and India have shared for thousand of years a priceless heritage of civilization
and culture and of a very peaceful religious, social and economic interaction with each other. In this
millennial relationship, all the societies extending from Myanmar to Indonesia along the Indian Ocean
and from there to the Philippines in the Asia Pacific have had by dint of history and geography a
close kinship and affinity with India. Today, like India again, they are pluralistic, multi ethnic societies.
There also exists among them a multifaceted partnership through bilateral and multilateral links
encompassing political, cultural, social, economic, scientific, technological, and security dimensions.
These links constitute a solid foundation for taking ASEAN—INDIA partnership to greater heights
and into new areas of growth and development.
Phnom Penh Summit

Since the First ASEAN—INDIA Summit held in Phnom Penh on November 2002 a number of
agreements and understandings have already been reached between the two sides including the
Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and India signed
in Bali in October 2003 for realizing the full potential of ASEAN—INDIA Regional Trade and
Investment Area (RTIA) and economic cooperation. At the Laos Summit in November last year the
two sides committed themselves to promote a long term cooperative partnership, impart synergies
to their complementarities and cooperate in a coordinated manner to accelerate and mutually reinforce
sustainable growth and development, taking full advantage of their geographical contiguity. Both
agreed to give high priority to development of regional infrastructure and road, rail, sea and air
transportation links to increase physical connectivity that would facilitate greater movement of goods
and people. In this connection they also agreed to facilitate travel and tourism between ASEAN and
India by linking their tourist centres and to enhance synergies of tourist destinations. In addition,
they agreed to promote cooperation in the fields of science and technology, and committed themselves
to work through both conventional and innovative trade and economic arrangements to achieve
freer movement of goods, services and investment.
The ASEAN Century

ASEAN and India agreed at the Laos summit to cooperate in human resource development, through
capacity building, strengthening of institutions, training and entrepreneurship development focusing
on small and medium enterprises. Apart from fostering cooperation to preserve their common cultural
heritage, they agreed to promote people to people exchanges involving parliamentarians, the youth,
artists, sport persons and representatives from business, industry, the media, and academic and
think-tank institutions. The document on Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity signed
on November 11, 2004 at the Third ASEAN—INDIA Summit also provides for strengthening
cooperation at the United Nations and other multilateral fora, in particular WTO. It expresses support
for early reforms of the United Nations and the Breton Woods institutions to make them more
democratic and responsive to the priorities of the developing countries. The ASEAN—India
Partnership document manifests a new urge on the part of ASEAN and India to jointly address the
common challenges confronting the world, especially those relating to security such as the menace of
international terrorism, other transnational crimes like trafficking in drugs, human trafficking, cyber

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