New Delhi:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday left on a four-day visit to Brunei and Indonesia as India seeks to expand its ties with Southeast Asia in all spheres, including economic, trade, security, connectivity and people to people.
At Brunei Darussalam, the prime minister will take part in the 11th India-ASEAN Summit and the 8th East Asian Summit and pay an official bilateral visit to Indonesia.
In his departure statement, the prime minister said India's engagement with the ASEAN "forms the cornerstone of our "Look East" policy and has evolved into a strong, comprehensive and multi-faceted partnership in recent years".
The relationship "started with a strong economic emphasis, with focus on commerce and connectivity, but has increasingly acquired strategic content".
The Brunei summit is the first since both sides elevated their ties to a strategic partnership last year.
The prime minister said "It will give me and my ASEAN colleagues an opportunity to review the progress in our relations over the last few months and explore initiatives to add further momentum and content to our relationship".
The East Asia Summit, he described as the "foremost forum for promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the dynamic Asia Pacific region".
"Given our vital stakes in the region, India has been closely involved in the evolution of an open, balanced and inclusive regional architecture, on the basis of the centrality of the ASEAN".
He said "India sees the East Asia Summit as a springboard to regional cooperation and integration and is participating in the negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership among the ASEAN and its FTA partners, which will help create an economic community in the region".
"The Summit has been highly supportive of India's initiative for the revival of the Nalanda University, which is slated to begin academic programmes next year. On the margins of the East Asia Summit, I will have the opportunity to meet other world leaders".
India's ties with Indonesia, an important bilateral partner, are "an essential part of India's integration with the broader region", he said.
He said it will be "my effort to maintain the momentum in our comprehensive relations generated by the visit of President Yudhoyono to India as the Chief Guest at our Republic Day in 2011 and create an institutional framework to further enhance the content of our cooperation in the years ahead".
"My visits to Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia will further intensify our engagement to our East, which has been at the forefront of our foreign policy, and contribute to peace, prosperity and stability in the Asia Pacific," the prime minister said.