India, ASEAN natural partners: Salman Khurshid

NEW DELHI: India and ASEAN have natural and mutually enhancing partnership where both historical basis and future ambitions make the vectors of "our interests congruent in an unparallelled manner", External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said today.

"We often say that our partnership with ASEAN is the foundation of our Look East policy," Khurshid said in his address at the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brunei.

"We all share the vision of a stable, secure and prosperous Asia Pacific region," he said adding the decision of the ASEAN leaders and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to upgrade the relationship into a strategic partnership was a natural progression to the ground covered since India became a Sectoral Partner of the ASEAN in 1992, Dialogue Partner in 1996 and Summit Level Partner in 2002.

He said it is a collective strength that ASEAN and India are natural partners.

"It is a natural and mutually enhancing partnership where both historical basis and future ambitions make the vectors of our interests congruent in an unparallelled manner", he said.