On Board PM's Special Aircraft, May 31 (IANS): Describing his visits to Japan and Thailand as "highly successful", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said India's "Look East" policy could benefit the northeastern states to a great extent.
"I have had two successful visits. First to Japan, at the invitation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the other to Bangkok, at the invitation of the prime minister of Thailand," he told reporters while returning from his five-day visit to Japan and Thailand.
He said that during the three-day visit to Japan, there were discussions on the civil nuclear deal. "This visit marked a formal move in that direction," Manmohan Singh said.
"I am hopeful that before long we will be able to put our signatures to a civil nuclear energy agreement with Japan as well," he added.
Regarding India's "Look East" policy, Manmohan Singh said: "I am hopeful that the "Look East" policy of India is paying rich dividends and the results are going to improve as we move forward."
He explained that the policy was not new.
"When Mr. (P.V.) Narasimha Rao was our prime minister, and I was the finance minister, we charted out a course of action to get closer to South East Asian countries, particularly ASEAN. Since then, the process has been moving forward.
"ASEAN countries are our strategic partners and there are enormous opportunities of expanding trade ties, investment relations, expanding maritime cooperation, expanding the scope of trade and investment, and now we have reached a stage where large-scale flow of trade and investment is becoming a reality," he said.
"We have, for example, the dedicated freight corridor where Japan is helping us; we have Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor where also Japanese help will be made available, and also the Mumbai-Bangalore corridor where there is agreed interest of east Asian countries, including Japan, Thailand and Malaysia," he pointed out.
He said that India's "Look East" policy could benefit the northeastern states.
"I sincerely hope the northeastern states of India will benefit enormously from our 'Look East' policies. If we improve the connectivity between India, Myanmar and Thailand, I think, you can imagine, that this would also benefit the northeastern states of our country," he said.
The prime minister said that certain items needed to be subsidized for the northeastern states in view of the reality that there was difficulty in connectivity with the rest of India. "There is need for some items being subsidized. But I do hope, that sooner or later, industry in the northeastern states will also learn to stand on its own feet," he said.
In Bangkok, India and Thailand signed seven agreements, including a much-delayed Extradition Treaty and another one to share financial intelligence to curb money laundering and terror financing.