Official sources said that the diplomats, who visited the North East Agri Expo 2012 at Dimapur and Kohima for the past two days ahead of the proposed ASEAN-India car rally, expected that after Myanmar's taking over the chairmanship of the 10-member regional block in 2014, infrastructure development on both sides of the two neighbours would receive priority. This was so as North-east India was gateway to South-east Asia through Myanmar.
ASEAN and India will mark the 20th anniversary of their dialogue relations with a commemorative summit in New Delhi next month which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sources said.
A number of commemorative activities, including a car rally, have been planned to signify the expanding and deepening of the dialogue partnership, sources said.
The car rally which will kick off in Jakarta (Indonesia) on November 26 will pass through Manipur, Nagaland and Assam and culminate in New Delhi on December 20 in the presence of the Prime Minister.
ASEAN, which had already signed a comprehensive free trade treaty with India, would be "a community of nations of free people, goods and services" in 2015, Thailand Ambassador to India Pisan Manawapat told newsmen here yesterday. Thailand is now chairing ASEAN.
Highlighting the expanding relationships between the two sides in areas of security, trade, commerce, tourism, culture and people-to-people contacts from the stage of a dialogue partnership in 2003, he stressed that physical connectivity between North-east and Myanmar must get priority for realisation of economic benefits to the region under the India
