As a dozen cars ceremoniously rolled out of Guwahati’s Nehru Stadium on Monday en route to Batam in Singapore, across eight ASEAN countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to the North-East as a gateway to the ‘Asian Century’, with the main engines of the world economy emerging in the Asia-Pacific region.‘‘Our growing interaction with ASEAN is critical for fulfilling the promise of the 21st century being the ‘Asian Century’ and we want the North-East states to be in the forefront of these interactions and to reap the benefits of enhanced peace and prosperity,’’ the PM said in the presence of ASEAN secretary-general Ong Keng Young and dignitaries from ASEAN member countries.Winding up his three-day trip to Manipur and Assam, the Prime Minister described it as ‘‘rewarding and the beginning of a new chapter’’, while at the same time, making a renewed appeal to different militant outfits to shun violence and find a solution through peaceful negotiations.‘‘We are ready to talk to them once they shun the path of violence. We cannot have a dialogue when they are holding guns at the same time,’’ 6Singh said, making his government’s stand clear that it would not accept any preconditions of the rebels. The PM also repeated what he said on Sunday about a credible solution to every demand being possible only through peaceful negotiations.Singh revealed that the Government had received an assurance from Myanmar on not allowing militant groups to use its soil for activities against India. ‘‘Myanmar has assured us that it would not allow militant groups to use its soil against India. We have made similar representations before Bangladesh, but have not succeeded in eliciting a positive response,’’ the PM said.Speaking about the car rally—which sees over 240 participants racing each other over 8,000 kilometers to Batam in Indonesia, via Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia—the PM said it was a big leap forward in regional cooperation and would help promote development and collective security.‘‘In an era of globalisation, inter-connectivity, be it within a region or between regions, has to be comprehensive, covering all dimensions—human, infrastructural, economic, technological and cultural. By building such bridges of understanding and interaction, we will increase and widen the circles of prosperity and growth,’’ Singh said.The PM described the India-ASEAN Car Rally as a ‘‘journey into the future’’, and one that demonstrates the possibilities that could come about in trade, tourism and people-to-people contact. The car rally will leave Guwahati on Tuesday morning, pass through the Kaziranga National Park, take the highway that links Kohima with Imphal, and enter Myanmar on Thursday.
