Hua Hin (Thailand), Oct 24 (Inditop.com) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday suggested the establishment of an India-ASEAN round table to provide policy inputs to the governments on future areas of cooperation.
Addressing the seventh India-ASEAN Summit here, he said the round table should comprise think tanks, policy makers, scholars, journalists and business representatives to bridge the knowledge gap.
He also sought intensified negotiations on an open skies policy and further simplification of the visa regime to encourage business and tourist travel between India and ASEAN countries. He also proposed greater exchanges of youths and MPs.
Manmohan Singh said India was ready to share satellite data with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to manage natural disasters and to launch small satellites, scientific instruments and payloads for experiments in remote sensing.
“We are convinced that India’s future and our economic interests are best served by greater negotiation with our Asian partners,” he said, adding he was confident that India and ASEAN could touch the bilateral trade target of $50 billion by 2010.
