PM's committee votes for open skies with Asean

The Prime Minister's Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) today said the civil aviation ministry should work towards an open skies policy with Asean by 2012.

"There was a broad agreement that negotiations should begin to put in place an open skies policy by 2012. This will provide sufficient time to the civil aviation ministry to procure additional planes within its deadline of 2009-10," a government official said.

The civil aviation ministry has been resisting attempts to operationalise an open skies policy with Asean on the grounds that competition would adversely impact domestic carriers.

The declaration of the India-EU summit held last month was also endorsed by the TERC.

"The general view in the TERC was that the negotiations should be concluded within the next two years. It was pointed out that the EU has taken several years to conclude negotiations. With Mercosur, for instance, the EU has been negotiating a Free Trade Agreement for over 13 years," an official said.

The TERC was also updated on the negotiations with Asean. The next round of negotiations between India and Asean will take place from November 16 to 18 at Jakarta.

The TERC, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, includes Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, among others. Nath, who is travelling overseas, did not attend today's meeting.