Asean heads to come for Republic Day parade: Pradhan

Part of plan for deeper petro ties with bloc and India in talks with Indonesia for refineries, LNG plants, says the oil minister

The government is in talks with Indonesia for partnering in the oil refining and liquefied natural gas (LNG) segments, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, as part of a plan to get involved with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the hydrocarbon sector.

As a boost to such ties, he added, heads of the 10 Asean countries would come to the next Republic Day parade here. The bloc comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Our oil marketing companies are also in the process of increasing their footprint in the retail marketing segment in Asean. Recently,