As India completes its 20 years of formal dialogue partner with the ASEAN bloc, a Commemorative Summit will be hosted in New Delhi in 2012. This Summit will be participated by the 10 ASEAN heads of state. As a symbolic pledge for ensuring greater connectivity, the ASEAN ministers will cross Myanmar border and visit northeast India.

The two-day Delhi Dialogue III : Beyond the First Twenty Years of India-ASEAN Engagement which concluded here on Friday called for speeding up the programme for ensuring all kinds of connectivity and addressing security problems of the region. Nalanda University programme will act a nucleus for cultural and academic connectivity and bring to live the historic connectivity of the past.

“India has undertaken a number of initiatives in line with its commitment to the – Initiative for ASEAN Integration – which is intended to bridge the developmental gap between the older and the newer, less developed members of ASEAN like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam,” The Indian Minister for External Affairs, SM Krishna said.

He cited the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, a sub-regional initiative launched in 2000 and comprising India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam The members of the MGC were working to promote cooperation in tourism, culture, education, transport and communication, he said.

Saying that the shift of power to Asia in this century was almost a cliché now, he said that a number of new initiatives and institutions in South East Asia were coterminous with and contributed to this shift. India’s participation in the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus Eight (ADMM+8) process is part of the wider paradigm shift which characterized its Look East Policy. So also is India’s participation in East Asia Summit which has the participation of US, Russia, Australia and New Zealand as well apart from the East Asian countries.

“We must focus even more sharply in our efforts to construct an interconnected economic block. I believe that India and ASEAN can do so by concentrating even greater efforts on physical connectivity……Connectivity will enhance the potential of merchandise trade and investment agreements that have been already put into effect or are on the anvil. Greater physical connectivity will reinforce intellectual inter-linkages that we have or will foster. In this context, I would like to mention our joint initiative for revival of the Nalanda University,” Krishna said.

The ASEAN Secretary General, Dr Surin Pitsuwan said that India and ASEAN together represent 1.8 billion humanity and $3 trillion GDP and we have transformed ourselves in the way we wanted. Referring to the East Asian crisis of 1990s, he said that the region survived this crisis but he cautioned that if this happens in this new dispensation it would have wider negative impact.

He urged to concentrate upon food and energy security, combating pandemics and climate change and management of natural disasters apart traditional security arrangements.

India’s National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon called for new security architecture for the entire East Asia, icluding ASEAN and India.

The Brunei Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng said that if India-ASEAN agreements on trade in services and investment were finalized it would add to greater connectivity and movement of people. The Thailand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kasit Piromya lauded India’s achievements in IT and pharma sectors. The Indonesian Minister for Trade, Dr Mari Elka Pangestu called for equitable development in the region, fostering greater connectivity and people-to-people movement and enhancing the role of member countries in shaping regional architecture and greater role of ASEAN plus in global fora.

“We need to work with our dialogue partners on the issue regional architecture for the region,” said the Assistant Foreign Minister of Vietnam, Pham Quang Vinh.

The Vice Chancellor Designate of the proposed Nalanda University said that the university will revive the ethos of the historic Nalanda University when scholars from other countries came to study in India and the scholars from the university went abroad with a mission. The proposed Nalanda University will have centres also in the Institute of Southeastern Asian Studies, Singapore and University of Cholangkorn, Thailand. Singapore has decided to donate $10 billion for the library.