Also the India-ASEAN relationship would be elevated to the level of Strategic Partnership, including defence, counter terrorism, maritime piracy, sciene and technology and economic affairs at the two-day India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit beginning here on Thursday.

ASEAN-India Vision Statement 2020 will also be adopted at the Summit, according to sources.

The India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit is being hosted to mark the 20th anniversary of India’s dialogue-level partnership and the 10th anniversary of Summit-level partnership with ASEAN.

The theme of the Summit is 'India and ASEAN: Partners in Progress and Prosperity'.

The Prime Ministers of Cambodia Hun Sen, Lao Thongsing Thammavong, Malaysia Najib Tun Razak, Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra and Vietnam Tan Dung, the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, the Presidents of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Myanmar Thein Sein and the Vice President of the Philippines Jejomar Binay are participating at the Summit.

The Cambodian Prime Minister as the ASEAN Chair, will be co-chairing the Commemorative Summit with Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Brunei is now the Country Coordinator for ASEAN's Dialogue Partnership with India.
The Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is slated to have bilateral meetings with Indonesian President Yudhoyono, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib, Myanmar President Thein Sein, Vietnam Prime Minister Tan Dung and Laos Prime Minister Thammavong at the margins of the India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit.

Dr Singh already had bilateral meetings with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Philippine President Aquino at the margins of margins of the India-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit recently held in Phnom Penh. He also met with the Sultan of Brunei.

Hence Dr Singh would cover the entire lot of ten ASEAN Heads of State and Government who are involved in this process with India.

Inaugurating the 2nd India- ASEAN Business Fair- 2012 here on Wednesday, the Indian Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma expressed confidence that the two-way trade between India and the ASEAN countries “will be able to reach USD 100 billion mark by 2015”.

He also said that the early operationalisation of the Services and Investment Agreement would provide greater impetus to the trade and investment flows.

Welcoming the Trade Minister from the ASEAN countries, Sharma urged the Trade Ministers that they should diversify the trade basket and that the economic gains on both sides would be substantial only if we develop supply chains with a focus on intra-industry trade. He also said that in order to realise the true potential of the economies, we should give a concerted push to strengthen the regional connectivity with ASEAN.

Sharma said that India views its partnership with ASEAN as a crucial block in sustaining the growth momentum. “We would like to benefit from ASEAN experience in key sectors of economy such as infrastructure, agro-processing, retail and value added manufacturing. Equally, Indian companies can be invaluable partners for ASEAN economies in augmenting their productivity,” he said.

On the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Sharma said that the negotiations would be a momentous step. “The fruition of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which will have in its embrace ASEAN and the six countries including India, China, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, will truly have a defining influence on the global economic architecture,” he said.

Later addressing media persons, the Indian Commerce Minister said that the FTA negotiations on Services and Investment would be concluded by Thursday when ASEAN Ministerial will take place after the formal negotiations.

“The senior officers have been meeting and we the Ministers have given them a very clear message and mandate at the recent ASEAN-India summit at Phnom Penh in Cambodia and senior officials and negotiators thereafter met in Jakarta. So the final round of negotiations is taking place between the senior officers of India, the Chief negotiator and his team and the ASEAN officials, and they will be formally reporting to the Ministerial meeting tomorrow. And the Ministers are committed. I can say for all of us to bring this negotiations to closure and carry on with our journey of partnership,' Sharma said.