Asean-India agree to enhance maritime cooperation

NEW DELHI: Leaders of Asean have welcomed India's desire to enhance maritime cooperation between Asean and India by making it a priority in strategic relations between both sides.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said Malaysia had stressed that Asean and India should continue to promote regional cooperation on maritime security, especially in terms of capacity building, information sharing and exchanges that could curb and fight maritime crimes, including non-conventional threats such as terrorism, extremism and piracy.
"In view of this, strategic cooperation in the maritime field also shows the potential we can achieve through our ways and methods in exploiting all maritime resources with a sustainable development approach that always emphasizes on the preservation of the environment.
"This is the best approach. The potential of the maritime and sea resources is huge and should be used for our common interest," he said here today.
The Prime Minister is in New Delhi at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the Asean-India Commemorative Summit being held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Asean-India Dialogue.
Earlier the Prime Minister attended a dialogue session with the leaders of Asean and India, themed on maritime and security cooperation.
Meanwhile Najib said leaders of the 10 nations in the Asean bloc also noted that in 2016 Asean-India trade reached US$58.4 billion (RM226.5 billion), accounting for 2.6% out of Asean's total trade.
"This places India as the sixth largest Asean trade partner after China , European Union, Japan, the United States and South Korea," he said.
According to statistics released by the Indian government, Asean-India trade nearly reached US$72 billion last year.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister jointly with Modi and the rest of the Asean leaders, inaugurated a set of commemorative stamps on the occasion of the summit. The stamps set, marking 25 years of Asean-India ties, contains 11 stamps, each for India and the 10-member grouping.
For Malaysia, the stamp features Torana Gate at Little India, Brickfields, a gift from the government of India to Malaysia, as a symbol of continued friendship between the two countries.
The monument, which was jointly inaugurated by Modi and Najib in 2015, was influenced by Hindu and Buddhist architecture of the Indian subcontinent. — Bernama