Shortly after the Asean Secretary-General publicly pointed out that discussions with India on a free trade area (FTA) were not proceeding very quickly, came the response: A long document and an eye-catcher.In his speech to the Asean Business and Investment Summit, Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong had said: ‘‘The FTA discussion with India is progressing, albeit slower than what we are hoping for.’’Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs Rajiv Sikri admitted that Ong was probably referring to the early harvest segment of the deal, which had fallen behind schedule. To set the tempo for the agreement, some items had to be identified early and duties on them slashed. ‘‘This was to have taken place by November 1. This could not happen,’’ he said.But even as India was hammering out a deal on the rules of origin of these items — to make sure that countries like China did not use the Asean as a route to flood the Indian market with their goods — a document was being tabled to reaffirm India’s stand.The bombastically-titled ‘‘Asean-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity’’ did not break any new ground. But India used the platform to reiterate that its FTA with five Asean countries would be in place by 2011, while the agreement with the Philippines and four new Asean members would be implemented by 2016.Apart from freer exchange of goods, services and people, India also spoke of completing the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway and extending it to Laos and Cambodia.But what really caught the attention of much of Laos today was the procession of 60 cars which were flagged off by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Guwahati and have now reached Vientiane for their next leg. Indian officials have been particularly pleased with the idea that the race shows how it is possible to travel by road all the way from India to Singapore. The rally will touch nine countries and cover 8,000 kilometres and, as Singh said, ‘‘it captures the imagination in demonstrating the essential oneness of our people’’.Certainly, in going across the sleepy Indian North-East and then over areas of Myanmar and Laos that have barely seen cars, the rally has caused a stir. Indian officials are now hoping that its impact is enough to overcome the occasional murmur within Asean about the speed of India’s moves towards a free trade area.
