New Delhi: The almost complete Kaladan multimodal project and the upcoming trilateral highway will take the North East further closer to the counties like Mynamar and Thailand which will give a big boost to the landlocked region, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday said. Enhancing connectivity between India and the Asean region can be a game changer for North East , External Affairs the Union Minister said in her keynote address at the ministerial session of the eighth edition of the Delhi Dialogue, a premier annual diplomatic event between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
“Enhancing connectivity is a strategic priority for both India and Asean. For India’s northeastern region, it can be a game changer, she said. “India has been working with Asean to enhance physical connectivity via our NE as well as our eastern seaboard,” Sushma Swaraj said. While the Kaladan project has achieved a physical progress of close to 90 percent and is scheduled to be completed in the next few months, the tendering process for 69 bridges on the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway has been initiated, she said.”The Rih-Tedim Road project will provide all weather connectivity between eastern Mizoram and western Myanmar,” the minister said, adding that work on enhancing air connectivity between the NE and the Asean region was also on. “India would like to be part of this growth and in this sense, the development of an Asean-India Economic Community would be a logical evolution. We also encourage the Asean member states which are yet to ratify the Asean-India Agreements on Trade in Services and Investments to do so at the earliest,” she said.
A panel discussion on “Connectivity: Creating Pathways to a Shared Future” was held with Chief Ministers of Nagaland and Mizoram, T.R. Zeliang and Lal Thanhawla respectively, Myanmar’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister U Tin Oo Lwin, Thai Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Virasakdi Futrakul, and ASEAN secretariat deputy secretary general A.K.P. Mochtan.”All concurred on the key role of connectivity as an enabler for prosperity, growth, peace and people-2-people contacts,” he said.A second panel on “Asean economic community and India: Integrating regional value chains and production networks” saw the participation of Vietnamese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung, Lao’s Vice Minister for Industry and Commerce Somchith Inthamith, Cambodian Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Kan Pharidh, Singapore MP and Singapore-India Parliamentary Friendship Group chairman Vikram Nair, along with Ambassador of the Philippines to India, M.A. Teresita C. Daza.
