India said on Tuesday it views the 16-member forum of the East Asia Summit as an opportunity to create a regional architecture for cooperation and deeper integration in the Asia Pacific region.
"We also expect that the East Asia Summit would help us to work towards the vision articulated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh of an Asian economic community, that would stretch from the Himalayas to the Pacific, linked by efficient road, rail, air and shipping services," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told foreign ministers of the EAS countries at
a luncheon in Manila.
Such a community would constitute an 'arc of advantage' across which there would be large scale movement of people, capital, ideas and creativity, he said.
India is one of the founding members of the exclusive EAS which includes the ASEAN countries, India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China.
The minister also hoped that the renewed interest in Asia's Buddhist heritage would rekindle ancient links between East and South Asia and will help the countries to come closer together.
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