Philippines' Aquino assures Modi on FTA

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday met with Philippines President Benigno Aquino who assured him that his country was pushing ahead with the inking of the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement on services and investments.

"Prez Aquino of Philippines assures PM @narendramodi that internal process for signing ASEAN-India FTA well underway," ministry of external affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.

The Philippines is the only Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-country yet to sign the FTA.

The FTA on services and investments aims to pave the way for freer movement of professionals and further opening opportunities for investments.

The Philippines, which has a booming business process outsourcing industry, reportedly had reservations about some clauses in the accord. Following talks, it has agreed to sign the agreement and has to complete its domestic procedures.

Modi, who has been meeting a string of leaders from the Southeast Asia region since he arrived here Tuesday evening, met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in the morning.

The talks with the Russian side were at the formal delegation level and come ahead of Modi's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in December.

Modi also had a brief interaction with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe and Modi, who have already met during the summit meeting in Japan in August, shook hands and chatted for a while outside the venue of the EAS.

The photo ops were posted on the PIB Twitter handle.