NEW DELHI, Feb 2 - The Centre has said that steady efforts are continuing to develop and strengthen connectivity of the Northeast with the ASEAN region through trade, culture, people-to-people contacts and physical infrastructure including road, airport, telecommunication and power.
Some of the major ongoing projects include the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project, the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project, Rhi-Tiddim Road Project and Border Haats, said Minister of State for Ministry of External Affairs MJ Akbar in Parliament.
�India�s Look East Policy (LEP) has been a major pillar of our foreign policy since the early 1990s. In the second half of 2014, LEP was upgraded to Act East Policy, which focuses on the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region. The policy, which was originally conceived as an economic initiative, has gained political, strategic and cultural dimensions including establishment of institutional mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation,� he said.
�The key principles and objectives of the Act East Policy is to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties and develop strategic relationship with countries in the Asia-Pacific region through continuous engagement at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels, thereby providing enhanced connectivity to the States of the Northeastern region with other countries in our neighbourhood,� he said.
�We have upgraded our relations to strategic partnership with Singapore in November 2015. Thus, we now have strategic partnerships with Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and forged close ties with all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region,� Akbar said.
�A Line of Credit of US $1 billion has been offered by our Prime Minister at the ASEAN-India Summit for enhancing physical and digital connectivity between India and ASEAN. A flagship ASEAN-India project is the establishment of a Tracking, Telemetry and Data Reception Centre and Data Processing Facility near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. ISRO has already initiated the project,� he further said.