Vientiane: In a first visit by an Indian Vice President, Mohammad Hamid Ansari embarked on a two day visit of Laos to expand India’s Act East policy.
“My visit is to expand as our PM describes it as an Act East policy, ” Ansari said as he addressed a reception hosted by the Indian Ambassador Ravi Shankar Aisola in Vientiane.
On Friday, he will hold bilateral talks with the Laotian leadership.
He addressed the Indian diaspora in Laos PDR and said he is delighted to be in the country which has been India’s consciousness for a very long time.
The Vice President, who was received at Wattay International Airport by Vongsavath Boupha, Minister to the President’s Office, said Laos was a country with whom India has had a good “trouble-free” relationship and it has been in India’s consciousness for a very long time.
“We have engaged with Lao PDR for a very long time. It has been a good trouble-free relationship. It is a small country but small countries also have a place under the Sun and we in India have been very conscious of it,” Ansari said.
He said that apart from our earlier relationship, the more recent relationship which is even more important is the ASEAN grouping.
“We regard the ASEAN grouping and in fact the whole of South East Asia as an area in our immediate neighbourhood where as the Prime Minister put it recently ‘Look East Policy’ is not sufficient, it has to be an ‘Act East Policy’ and as part of that endeavour, we are actively, consciously building our linkages-political linkages, economic linkages, trade linkages above all retaining and reviving cultural linkages which go back a long time,” Ansari added.
“What are the Indian capacities which can be brought in to play and what are the areas India can benefit from them, from an active relationship with them. We have got over the economic constraints that we had in the 80s and the 90s even till a few years back. The Indian economy is doing well. The Indian private sector assisted by a great deal of liberalization and government policies is now outward looking and they are looking at the whole world,” the Vice President said.
“In the coming days we are going to have a very big gathering of over 40 African heads of states in Delhi where we would discuss ways of enhancing our cooperation with these countries. So, one phase of post-independent India’s approach to the outside world has more or less been completed – that is building up relationships of friendship -good political relations and that relationship has been built up on a much longer association in terms of Indian policy towards the world particularly in Africa,” he said.
“And the support that we gave to a whole range of African countries, not the least of them being South Africa in the fight against Apartheid. That phase is now over. Today we are looking at the world of tomorrow. The world of tomorrow will be the world of investment, the world of technology,” Ansari added.