PM Modi arrives in Bangkok on three-day visit amid focus on RCEP negotiations
Bangkok: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday on a three-day visit in the midst of renewed diplomatic efforts to convince India to support signing of a mega trade deal involving 16 Asia-Pacific nations to facilitate creation of the biggest free-trade region in the world.
The prime minister will attend 16th ASEAN-India Summit, the 14th East Asia Summit and the third summit meeting of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which is negotiating the trade deal.
Though the annual ASEAN and East Asia summits are key platforms to devise common strategy in dealing with geo-strategic and economic issues facing the region, the single-point focus this time has been on the long-negotiated RCEP trade deal.
Multiple diplomatic sources confirmed to PTI that except India, all 15 RCEP countries were on board in finalizing the deal when leaders of the grouping hold a summit meeting on Monday.
At the RCEP Summit, we will take stock of the progress in RCEP negotiations. We will consider all issues including whether India's concerns and interests in trade in goods, services, and investments are being fully accommodated, during this summit, Modi said in a statement in New Delhi ahead of his visit here.
On India-ASEAN summit, Modi said the focus will be on deepening economic partnerships, and expanding maritime cooperation besides enhancing ASEAN-led mechanisms.
I will be reviewing with ASEAN partners our cooperative activities, and examining plans for strengthening ASEAN and ASEAN-led mechanisms, enhancing connectivity (sea, land, air, digital and people-to-people), deepening economic partnerships, and expanding maritime cooperation, he said.
The annual ASEAN summit, a grouping of 10 influential countries, is taking place amid China's aggressive behaviour in the disputed South China Sea as well as in the Indo-Pacific region. The powerful grouping will have separate summits with its dialogue partners like India, the US, Japan, Russia and China.
The ASEAN region along with India together comprises combined population of 1.85 billion people, which is one fourth of the global population and their combined GDP has been estimated at over USD 3.8 trillion. Investment from ASEAN to Indian has been over USD 70 billion in the last 17 years accounting for more than 17 per cent of India's total FDI.
Besides attending the India-ASEAN and RCEP summits, the prime minister will also attend the annual East Asia summit which is expected to review the evolving security scenario in the region besides deliberating on ways to deal with threat of terrorism and radicalization.
While ASEAN summit is likely to focus more on trade and investment related issues, leaders at the East Asia Summit are expected to delve deep into issues relating to maritime security, terrorism, non-proliferation and migration.
The East Asia Summit (EAS) is today the leading element in the regional cooperative architecture, as a singular, Leaders-led structure that is centered around ASEAN, and includes as members major countries in the region or with important interests in it. We will be reviewing significant regional and global issues on the Agenda of the EAS, and examining the state of our current programmes and projects, the PM said.
I will also focus on our Indo-Pacific strategy, on which I am happy to note strong convergences with ASEAN partners and others at the EAS, he said.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN Member states, East Asia Summit includes India, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Russia.
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Ruckus outside counting centre in Mamata's constituency, TMC claims entry of car with BJP flag
Kolkata (PTI): The counting centre at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Bhabanipur assembly constituency witnessed a ruckus a day ahead of the counting of votes, with TMC workers alleging two cars bearing the BJP's flag were allowed entry to the compound where EVMs are kept.
The incident comes close on the heels of a four-hour-long sit-in by Banerjee in front of the same counting centre at the Sakhawat Memorial Girls School on Thursday night, alleging unauthorised entry of persons into the strongroom.
With the polling now over, the wrangling for power in West Bengal has turned into a battle of nerves between the incumbent TMC and the BJP. Workers and leaders of both parties have been keeping a steely gaze on the security of strongrooms across the state where the electoral fate of the candidates is sealed.
Despite expressing her confidence in a "landslide victory", Banerjee has repeatedly aired her apprehensions of "counting malpractice and EVM tampering ahead of the day of results".
On Sunday morning, TMC workers camping 100 metres from the counting centre alleged that two cars with BJP flags entered the premises and went near the strongroom.
"The CAPF personnel at the spot are not allowing any vehicle or person to enter the premises of the counting centre without valid identity proof. Then how come this car, which we have not seen in the past few days, was allowed entry? Once we protested, the central forces asked us to move 100 metres away," a TMC activist said.
The TMC claimed that while the police personnel posted there promised the vehicle would be removed from the spot, it remained there for some time.
A senior Election Commission official said the car was passing by the Harish Mukherjee Road, and after checking by security forces and police, it was allowed to leave as nothing objectionable was found in it.
On Thursday night, two counting centres, including one at Sakhawat Memorial Girls School in the city, witnessed high drama after TMC leaders alleged a lack of transparency and possible malpractice at the strongrooms housing sealed EVMs of the assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.
TMC leaders and candidates, Sashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh, held a sit-in outside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra counting centre on Thursday evening, alleging unauthorised activities inside the strongroom amid the absence of TMC agents
In Howrah, TMC protested renovation work by the public works department at a place adjacent to the strongroom, and the EC stopped the work temporarily.
On Saturday, the ruling party filed a complaint with the poll panel, alleging unauthorised sorting of postal ballot covers at the EVM strongroom in Khudiram Anushilan Kendra.
Similar scenes were witnessed on Saturday outside the strongrooms at Asansol College in Paschim Bardhaman and the Barasat Government College in North 24 Parganas districts, where TMC workers held protests, alleging that CCTV cameras were switched off for several minutes.
The EC turned down all allegations, saying the surveillance cameras were working in an uninterrupted manner.
BJP spokesperson Sajal Ghosh told reporters that the people of Bengal were finding it "hilarious" that the TMC, "which used to win elections through unfair means and strongarm tactics" were now coming up with all sorts of "frivolous charges".
"Are they scared of losing?" he posed.
