India on Wednesday called for the speeding up of regional connectivity projects with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), including the trilateral highway with Myanmar and Thailand and the Kaladan transit transport project.
While speaking at the virtual Asean-India foreign ministers meeting, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi was also looking to an early review of the trade in goods agreement. In a set of tweets, Jaishankar described the meeting as “substantive and fruitful”.
India, he tweeted, was looking forward to “accelerate our connectivity projects, especially trilateral highway and Kaladan project”. He didn’t give details.
The Indian side has helped construct two key stretches of the 1,360-km trilateral highway in Myanmar, but work on several other sections and the upgrade of nearly 70 bridges has been held up by a variety of factors. India believes the highway, which will run from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand, will allow it to access markets across the Asean region and boost people-to-people ties.