In her address at the 12th India-ASEAN meeting here, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the new government in India would like to stand with the grouping and take the relationship forward so people's aspirations for growth and development could be fulfilled.
"As you are on the brink of achieving your long cherished goal of the ASEAN Community by 2015, I bring to you the assurance of the new Government in India that we would like to stand with you and take the trajectories of our common interests higher in the coming years, both in terms of achievement and relevance to our bilateral ASEAN+1 relationship and also in terms of the multilateral ambition at the regional and global levels," Swaraj said in her first engagement at multilateral fora.
"To the 5 Ts of the Government of India - Tradition, Talent, Tourism, Trade and Technology, I would like to reiterate the value of a 'C' before them all in foreign policy - the 'C' of connectivity in all its dimensions, geographic, institutional and people-to-people. I would like this 'C' of connectivity to translate into tangible and urgent action on the ground, bringing our capacities together to mutual benefit," she said.