Opening Statement

The External Affairs Minister is leading our delegation forthe tenth session of the ARF and related meetings in Phnom Penh. Today there was the meeting of the PostMinisterial Conference (PMC). That is called the meeting of 10+10, that is the ASEAN 10 and 10 sectoraldialogue partners. In this meeting EAM made two interventions, the first on WTO matters and the second onHIV/AIDS and the other infective diseases.

On WTO matters EAM stressed the importance of these issues fordeveloping countries, a gain in 5% of their share of world exports could translate into an income gain of US $350 billion annually which is the several times the aggregate annual ODA inflows. EAM also took theopportunity of reiterating the key priorities for developing countries in the Doha round which were identifiedby the Prime Minister at Evian recently.

I may recapitulate that these were issues like the rapid eliminationof the tariff and non-tariff barriers to developing country exports, the phasing out of trade distortingagricultural subsidies, the removal of visa and non-visa impediments to the free movement of natural personsfor providing services and broader access for developing countries to pharmaceuticals. We will make availableto you the points made by the EAM.
 
External Affairs Minister also had two bilateral meetings. As you know he already met the US Secretary ofState Colin Powell yesterday and today he met the Foreign Ministers of China and Myanmar.

During the meetingwith the Chinese Foreign Minister Lee the two sides expressed satisfaction at the development of bilateralrelations specially in the trade area and agreed that the two sides could work together in the interests ofdeveloping countries in multilateral fora including the WTO, etc. The two sides looked at the preparations forthe upcoming visit of the Prime Minister. Similarly he had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Myanmar andlater today I understand he is expected to meet Foreign Minister of Canada.

There was also a one hour meetingof PMC (10+1) which is the ASEAN 10 and India. This meeting reviewed India-ASEAN relations and preparations inthis regard for the next summit to be held in Bali in October this year. Tomorrow they will be having themeeting of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation( MGCO). As you know the members are India, Thailand, Vietnam,Cambodia, Laos-PDR and Myanmar.

This forum is looking at cooperation in education, culture, tourism,communications and transportation sectors. This meeting will be held after a period of two years after a longgap. It should have been held earlier and we will be stressing the importance that we attach to this forumacross these sectors which have been identified.
 
On the technical level talks on the Lahore-Delhi bus between the delegations from India and Pakistan, Iunderstand that the two sides had a good, cordial meeting. They discussed the modalities for the resumption ofthe bus service and would be now looking at the processing the issues of immigration, customs and otherlogistical aspects. As you know if things were to work out, we are ready to resume the service by July 1. Wewould wait for Pakistan to indicate when they will be ready and at a mutually agreeable date it can bestarted.