India will not get involved in ASEAN disputes: Ansari

On Board Special Aircraft: India wants to develop “comprehensive” ties with ASEAN nations but will not get involved in any of their territorial or maritime disputes, Vice-President Hamid Ansari has said.

“India has a very clear cut view on Southeast Asia. We want to develop a comprehensive relationship based on satisfaction of each other's requirement,” he told reporters last night on his way back from a four-day two-nation tour of Cambodia and Laos.

“Requirement is peace, stability and development. If there is no peace and stability, there will be no trade, there will be no investment and there will be no business. Now in that we have a convergence of views,” he said.

Asked that with many Southeast Asian countries embroiled in territorial and maritime disputes, can India emerge as a stabilising force, Ansari, in a lighter vein, said, “We are not in the business of providing stabilisers that <g data-gr-id="18">has</g> to be done by the ship-building industry.” 

Ansari said: “It is incumbent on us and we have done it, to have not only good relations with something called ASEAN but good relations with every member of ASEAN.”