President A P J Abdul Kalam, who returned to India on Thursday after a ten-day East Asian tour to Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea, said his visit had been extremely successful.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his colleagues were at the airport to receive the President.
Talking to journalists accompanying him, Dr Kalam said the most important aspect of the visit was the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with South Korea, which will come into force in 2007.
During the President's visit, New Delhi and Seoul agreed to set up a Joint Task Force to oversee the modalities of operationalising CEPA before 2007. Trade between the two countries is expected to grow to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
Dr Kalam said during his talks with the leaders of the three countries, they had called for India and China to play an active role in ensuring peace and development in Asia.
His visit to Singapore and the Philippines also helped forge closer bilateral and economic links with these countries. A number of agreements on science and technology and tourism were signed during his visit.
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and MPs Sumitra Mahajan, Sachin Pilot and V N Zawma accompanied Dr Kalam.
A team of scientists, personally invited by the President, also accompanied him.
