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India-ASEAN car rally |
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Indian diplomacy will shift into top gear in November blazing a trail of goodwill through the ASEAN when the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) organises a car rally to promote Brand India. Called First India-ASEAN Car Rally, participants will be flagged off on November 22 from Guwahati and terminate in Singapore on December 8. They will wade through 8,000 km of tarmac, dirt track, forest stretches and boulder roads through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. The idea of diplomacy on wheels had come from former Prime Minister Vajpayee at last year’s October Asean-India summit in Bali. That’s why the rally schedule has been drawn up to coincide with the third ASEAN-India summit at Vientiane, Laos.
The MEA is organizing the non-competitive event through the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India has come on board as the technical partner. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992 in areas of trade, investment, tourism and science and technology. It has a trade turnover of about $12 billion. The MEA is driving the rally to recce road links to raise this further. A road link is seen as a prime mover behind trade relations and investments, particularly in the infrastructure along the route. The rally is also expected to drive tourism and growth in the North East.
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