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India-ASEAN summit delayed



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                       India-ASEAN summit delayed

By Seema Guha
The Times of India
August 2, 2001

NEW DELHI: No one is the Union will admit it in public, but it is well
known, that one reason for the delay in beginning the annual India-ASEAN
summits, is China's opposition. K C Pant, deputy chairman of the
Planning Commission, who was recently in Hanoi for the ASEAN regional
forum, said on Tuesday: "There is some movement, but it has not yet been
finalized." He went to Vietnam because external affair minister Jaswant
Singh was busy with the on-going parliamentary sessions.

Omar Abdullah, the new minister of state for external affair, sat beside
Pant in his first interaction with the media in his new position. He
clarified that during his trip to Malaysia with the Prime Minister
earlier this year, it was evident that ASEAN was keen to hold regular
summits with India. He said after the India-EU summit, the idea of
Asean-India summit was very much there. Malaysia which is ASEAN's
co-ordinator for India, had assured New Delhi that the move was on. But
because of ASEAN's recent expansion with the induction of Myanmar,
Vietnam and Cambodia, the process could take a little longer. "They
don't want to be over burdened, it will take some time for the expanded
ASEAN to settle down. It is only a question of time before the
India-ASEAN summit takes place," Abdullah said.

India and China ? the two Asian giants ? are vying with each other for
increasing their sphere of influence in the region. China is already
well entrenched, but India's recent moves in getting on board ASEAN as a
dialogue partner and getting into China's backdoor through the
Mekong-Ganga co-operation group has obviously led to Beijing's interest
in it as well as in SAARC is intriguing, especially as it has never
considered itself a part of the narrow South Asian groove.



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<center><b><font color="#000099"><font size=+2>India-ASEAN summit delayed</font></font></b></center>

<p><i><font color="#990000"><font size=+1>By Seema Guha</font></font></i>
<br><i><font color="#990000"><font size=+1>The Times of India</font></font></i>
<br><i><font color="#990000"><font size=+1>August 2, 2001</font></font></i>
<p><font size=+1>NEW DELHI: No one is the Union will admit it in public,
but it is well known, that one reason for the delay in beginning the annual
India-ASEAN summits, is China's opposition. K C Pant, deputy chairman of
the Planning Commission, who was recently in Hanoi for the ASEAN regional
forum, said on Tuesday: "There is some movement, but it has not yet been
finalized." He went to Vietnam because external affair minister Jaswant
Singh was busy with the on-going parliamentary sessions.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Omar Abdullah, the new minister of state for external
affair, sat beside Pant in his first interaction with the media in his
new position. He clarified that during his trip to Malaysia with the Prime
Minister earlier this year, it was evident that ASEAN was keen to hold
regular summits with India. He said after the India-EU summit, the idea
of Asean-India summit was very much there. Malaysia which is ASEAN's co-ordinator
for India, had assured New Delhi that the move was on. But because of ASEAN's
recent expansion with the induction of Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia, the
process could take a little longer. "They don't want to be over burdened,
it will take some time for the expanded ASEAN to settle down. It is only
a question of time before the India-ASEAN summit takes place," Abdullah
said.</font>
<p><font size=+1>India and China ? the two Asian giants ? are vying with
each other for increasing their sphere of influence in the region. China
is already well entrenched, but India's recent moves in getting on board
ASEAN as a dialogue partner and getting into China's backdoor through the
Mekong-Ganga co-operation group has obviously led to Beijing's interest
in it as well as in SAARC is intriguing, especially as it has never considered
itself a part of the narrow South Asian groove.</font>
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