Asean needs to look at challenge posed by terrorism: V K Singh

Describes Northeast as a gateway to the Asean countries

India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to consider the issue of terrorism "seriously" so as to prevent it from disrupting trade and commerce, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said on Friday.

"So that we do not have any disruption due to terror activities. Terror knows no borders, colours, gender and religion and therefore it is for us to ensure that we bring prosperity to our region by keeping this out of our region," he said at the fifth India-ASEAN economic forum here organised by ASSOCHAM.

Referring to the upcoming silver-jubilee of India's ties with the multilateral grouping, Singh said something better was going to happen due to the "structural engineering" of the economy by the BJP government.

Holding peace as an imperative for any business or commerce to function, Singh said the menace of terrorism was a "challenge" that India and ASEAN "need to look at seriously".

India has a free trade agreement with ASEAN, a 10-nation bloc, whose members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam.

Speaking at the event, Ton Sinh Thanh, the ambassador of Vietnam to India, said India and China were the pillars of ASEAN, akin to the "wings of an aircraft".

In his speech, Singh also underlined the importance of North-East, describing it as a gateway to the ASEAN countries. He said India has gone beyond 'Look East' and the focus was now on 'Act East'.