Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Brunei on Thursday to enhance bilateral and multilateral relations and discussed issues related to the sale of uranium.
At the 11th India-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Summit and the 8th East Asia Summit, Dr. Singh is expected to enhance multilateral ties with key participating members.
By the end of 2013, India is also aiming to ink a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN on services and investments.
Earlier, Singh had stressed on the need for India to intensify dialogue with the East to ensure peace and stability in the region.
Later, Dr. Singh would also visit Indonesia to boost socio-economic relations between both nations.
ASEAN is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It groups more than 600 million people from disparate economic and political systems.
The East Asia summit is an annual forum attended by 18 countries, sixteen of East Asia as well as the United States and Russia. The East Asia summit follows the annual ASEAN meet. The first East Asia Summit was held on December 14,2005, at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.