PM in Myanmar to boost ‘India’s Look East Policy’

Nay Pyi-Taw: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left  for Myanmar on Monday to attend the BIMSTEC Summit, making a  strong push for intensifying collective efforts to combat  security challenges and enhancing connectivity and trade in  the region.

"Security challenges both natural and man-made, require  our collective vision and determination to be overcome," Singh  said in a statement before his departure for the Myanmarese  capital, Nay Pyi-Taw.   
"In the security sphere, we have steadily put in place  enabling legal instruments for regional approaches to  international terrorism, transnational crime, drug trafficking  and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, the need for  which is more salient in today's integrated world than ever  before," he said.   

Singh said the BIMSTEC lay at the crossroads between  SAARC and ASEAN, drawing its energy from the natural  convergence of the countries around the Bay of Bengal.   "Connectivity and sub-regional cooperation in trade and  investment, energy, climate, tourism, agriculture and other  areas provide the spark for the growth engine in our region,"  he said.   

The Prime Minister stressed that peace, stability and  development in BIMSTEC countries, with over 20 per cent of the  world's population and over USD 2.5 trillion worth of GDP, was  'indispensable', for the forward march of Asia as a whole.   BIMSTEC has evolved and matured further as a group since  the last summit in New Delhi in 2008, he said.

Singh stressed that India's bilateral relations with  BIMSTEC countries are among its most important in the world. On the sidelines of the two-day summit, he hopes to exchange notes with leaders from other Member states, whom he  described as 'close and friendly neighbours of India'.   

With the impending establishment of a Permanent  Secretariat in Dhaka and appointment of a Secretary General,  BIMSTEC is poised to play a more active role in regional  integration and cooperation, he said.   
Several BIMSTEC centres are being launched throughout the  region, including three in India, to foster greater technical  exchanges between member countries, he said.

During the summit to be attended by leaders from seven  countries including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand,  Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal, Singh is expected to make a strong  pitch for giving a fillip to India's Look East policy and  explore ways to enhance connectivity, transport, trade,  tourism and other linkages to all the northeastern states.   

In what could be his last foreign trip as Prime Minister  in this tenure, Singh is likely to use his two-day visit to  renew contacts with leaders of the seven-member Bay of Bengal  Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic  Cooperation (BIMSTEC) which will hold its summit in Nay Pyi  Taw on Tuesday.

One cannot underestimate the potential of BIMSTEC in  bringing the fruits of these cross connectivity linkages to  the northeastern states, says Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.   With some sticky issues still to be resolved, it may take  some time for the grouping to wrap up a free trade pact.   

"FTA negotiations are processes that take time. The  BIMSTEC negotiation is particularly complex because it already  encompasses countries which have FTA under the SAFTA process,  and then you have other countries that belong to ASEAN.

Taking  all this into account, we have to arrive at an outcome that is  optimal for India as well as for them. So, this is going to  take some time," she said. A Framework Agreement for BIMSTEC Free Trade Area was  signed in Phuket, Thailand in February, 2004, which commits  the parties to negotiate FTAs in goods, services and  investments.

An agreement on Trade in Goods and other provisions  relating to rules of origin, operational certification  procedures and pact on Customs cooperation was finalised in  June, 2009. India has exchanged its tariff preference  schedules with member countries.   Leaders at the upcoming meeting are expected to ink pacts  on setting up of BIMSTEC Centre on Weather and Climate in  India and Cultural Industries Observatory in Bhutan besides  establishment of the permanent secretariat in Dhaka for which  India has pledged contribution of 32 per cent of annual  expenditure incurred there.   

"Our stakes in BIMSTEC are significant and will grow  further as the grouping matures," the Foreign Secretary  stressed.

The summit will be preceded by ministerial meeting which  will be attended by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid  and at the senior official level by the Foreign Secretary.   

During the visit, the Prime Minister will have bilateral  meetings with Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa,  Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other leaders.   His talks with Rajapaksa takes place three months after  he had skipped a visit to the island nation to attend the  Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) due to  pressure from Tamil parties and within government.   

Sri Lanka has rejected a call by the UN for an  independent international probe into allegations of war  crimes. Colombo has come under increasing international pressure  to probe allegations of excessive civilian deaths during the  final battle that ended in May 2009. A crucial UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka is coming up for vote in  Geneva this month.   
Last Monday, the UN had called for an independent  international probe into allegations of war crimes in Sri  Lanka during the final battle with the LTTE, prompting an  angry reaction from Colombo which rejected the demand and  slammed it as "unwarranted interference".  

Singh's meeting with Hasina comes in the backdrop of  delay in signing the long-pending agreements on Teesta river  water sharing treaty and India's ratification of land boundary  agreement with that country.   

This will also be Singh's first meeting with Hasina after her party Awami League coasted to a landslide victory in the  January 5 parliamentary election, bagging 231 seats in the  face of a boycott by BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance.   

The talks are expected to touch on the agreement on  Teesta river treaty which was put on hold after West Bengal  Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed reservation over  the quantum of water to be given to Bangladesh and had opted  out of Singh's entourage to Dhaka in September, 2011.   

Singh, who is travelling to Myanmar after a gap of nearly  two years, the last being a bilateral visit in 2012, will also  be holding talks with the leadership in that country.   

The Summit is also expected to discuss steps to bolster  cooperation in counter-terrorism. India has led negotiations  and finalised the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal  Assistance in Criminal Matters. India also wishes to see BIMSTEC promote economic and  energy cooperation, encourage cultural links and strengthen  security contacts.