India and members of the Association of South-East Asian Nation members Thursday successfully concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement in services and investment. Speaking at an India-ASEAN commemorative summit in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: "This represents a valuable milestone in our relationship. I am confident it will boost our economic ties in much the same way the FTA in goods has done."

The two parties reached a trade deal on goods in 2010 but India has pushed for extending the agreement to services and investment. India and ASEAN have set a bilateral trade target of 100 billion dollars by 2015. Two-way trade currently stands at 80 billion dollars.

The two sides also agreed on a vision document laying out a roadmap for future cooperation across all sectors. The heads of state or governments of all the ASEAN member nations except the Philippines are attending the two-day summit. The latter member is being represented by its vice president, the Indian foreign ministry said. The summit commemorates the 10th anniversary of summit-level meetings between India and ASEAN and the 20th anniversary of formal engagement between the two. Current ASEAN members are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2012