India to push regional integration at SAARC summit

India will strive to promote greater integration of the South Asian economy and the development of a South Asian identity at the forthcoming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) to be held at Male, in Maldives, from 10 to 11 November 2011.

''We expect to give a further push to trade liberalisation under the South Asian Free Trade Area Agreement (SAFTA),'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while addressing the media on the eve of his departure to Male to attend the SAARC summit.

The summit is expected to formalise agreements on implementation of regional standards, multilateral arrangement on recognition of conformity assessment, rapid response to natural disasters as also the establishment of a SAARC seed bank.

''The theme of the Twelfth SAARC Summit is `Building Bridges'. We welcome this focus because India has always emphasised the importance of enhanced connectivity for the socio-economic development of the South Asian region,'' the prime minister said.

''We have undertaken several initiatives to improve connectivity on a bilateral, sub-regional and regional basis, and are willing to do much more. The theme is also in consonance with the observance of the current decade as the ''SAARC Decade of Intra-Regional Connectivity,'' he added.

The prime minister will hold bilateral discussions with other South Asian heads of state and government on the sidelines of the summit.