India to Receive Mekong-Ganga Countries Before ASEAN Summit

New Delhi, Aug 17 (Prensa Latina) India will meet next month with the five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bordering the Mekong and Ganga Rivers, prior to the holding of a summit here with that alliance.

The meeting, scheduled for September 5 and 6 in New Delhi, will be attended by foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, sources from the Foreign Ministry reported.

The ministerial meeting will focus on boosting connectivity projects and fostering economic, cultural and tourism exchanges between those countries, which in addition to integrating the ASEAN make up the so-called Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Group.

India's Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna will also meet separately with his peers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The other ASEAN members are Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. They comprise more than 1.7 billion people, about a quarter of the world population.

The Mekong-Ganga meeting will precede the ASEAN-India Summit, to be held on December 20-21 in New Delhi, marking the 20th anniversary of dialogue and partnership between the parties. The slogan for the conference is "For Peace and Shared Prosperity" and its objective is to outline the course of relations between the association and the third largest economy in Asia, which will be reflected in a final statement.

In 1991, the government of the then Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao set a new strategic approach towards the Southeast Asian nations, the so-called Look East Policy, to benefit from the enormous economic progress experienced by the neighboring region.

Sourced: plenglish