India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed a free-trade agreement Thursday expected to raise annual trade to 60 billion dollars within seven years, officials said. "The signing today is a good sign of the extended trade between ASEAN and India," said Porntiva Nakasai, commerce minister of Thailand, which holds the 10-member regional bloc's rotating chairman ship.
"The agreement comes at an appropriate time taking into account the current world economic crisis," she said in a statement. The agreement has been hailed as a milestone following years of tough negotiations between ASEAN and India, its seventh-largest trading partner. It covers billions of dollars in trade and a market of 1.7 billion people. The signing came ahead of a meeting in Bangkok this weekend of finance ministers from ASEAN and its regional partners China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
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