India for opening skies for ASEAN
Source: Hueiyen News Service

New Delhi, February 12 2014: Terming North East region as a bridge towards ASEAN, India today said it would work on opening up its skies for better air connectivity with them.

"We see the North East as a bridge towards the ASEAN region.

Maritime connectivity, coastal shipping agreement and freer open skies policy will be other areas of emphasis," Sanjay Bhattarcharya, Joint Secretary (South) in Ministry of External Affairs said during an interaction here.

India, as part of its 'Look East Policy', also lay greater emphasis on developing economic partnerships and building connectivity with the ASEAN region, he said.

The MEA has also begun working with the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), which plays a central role in developing connectivity with the ASEAN region, he said.

"We have one project the trilateral highway from North East through Myanmar into Thailand.

We have offered to the ASEAN open skies in eighteen designated cities to develop extensive air connections across the country," he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is a group of ten nations--Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam.

The government is also focusing on ways to strengthen counter terrorism measures with the ASEAN nations and stressed for furthering defence ties with them.

"On the political dimension we have focussed on improved understanding at the highest level...This has been a fairly difficult world with counter terrorism which is one of our major priorities.

It's a transnational crime along with many others.

"So we have focussed with our partners in this region to developing a legal architecture so that our efforts at the security dimensions in terms of counter terrorism can be dealt with effectively," Bhattacharya said.

This would include things like mutual legal systems, extradition, transfer of sentenced persons and then we also have specific agreements with many countries like narcotics, trafficking, counterfeit notes, the official said.

"There is also a need to enhance our exchanges in terms of defence partnerships in naval exercises, training in disaster relief and developing interoperability," he added.

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