Since its start about a decade ago, the partnership between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam has been developing at quite a fast pace.

India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992. Mutual interest led ASEAN to invite India to become its full dialogue partner during the fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in 1995. India also became a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1996. India and ASEAN have been holding summit-level meetings on an annual basis since 2002.

In August 2009, India signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the ASEAN members in Thailand. Under the ASEAN-India FTA, ASEAN member countries and India will lift import tariffs on more than 80 per cent of traded products between 2013 and 2016, according to a release by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In January 2010, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand accepted the FTA on goods. The other seven ASEAN countries are expected to operationalise the FTA by August 2010.

India and ASEAN are currently negotiating agreements on trade in services and investment. The services negotiations are taking place on a request-offer basis, wherein both sides make requests for the openings they seek and offers are made by the receiving country based on the requests.

India has made requests in a number of areas including teaching, nursing, architecture, chartered accountancy and medicine as it has a large number of English speaking professionals in these areas who can gain from job opportunities in the ASEAN region. India is also keen on expanding its telecom, IT, tourism and banking network in ASEAN countries.

Trade

The deepening of ties between India and ASEAN is reflected in the continued buoyancy in trade figures.

India’s trade with ASEAN countries has increased from US$ 30.7 billion in 2006-07 to US$ 39.08 billion in 2007-08 and to US$ 45.34 billion in 2008-09. During April – September 2009-10, India’s trade with ASEAN was US$ 20.19 billion, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In 2008-09, India's exports to ASEAN totalled US$ 19.14 billion. During April-December 2009-10, India exported goods worth US$ 12.8 billion to ASEAN, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

India imported goods worth US$ 26.3 billion in 2008-09 from ASEAN. During the period April-December 2009-10, India's imports from ASEAN totalled US$ 18.09 billion, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Singapore

The growing bilateral economic relationship is reflected in the rapidly rising bilateral trade between Singapore and India. Singapore continues to be the single largest investor in India amongst the ASEAN countries and the second largest amongst all countries with foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India, totalling US$ 2.4 billion in 2009-10. The cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore during April 2000 and March 2010 were US$ 10.2 billion, according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The total bilateral trade during 2008-09 was US$ 16.1 billion, an increase of 3.86 per cent over US$ 15.5 billion in 2007-08, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

During 2008-09, India exported goods worth US$ 8.45 billion to Singapore. During April-December 2009-10, Indian merchandise exports to Singapore totalled US$ 5.12 billion, comprising mainly of mineral fuels and oils, ships, boats and floating structures and natural pearls, gems and jewellery, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.