1.   

India hosts ASEAN summit

India and the 10-member ASEAN grouping are set to take their ties to a strategic level at a two-day summit which began in New Delhi on Thursday. The summit is expected to give a boost to India’s Look East policy. This is the first time India is hosting a summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) where it has decided to engage in intense bilateral diplomacy and take its relationship to a higher level.

2.   

India to expand bilateral trade with Bangladesh

Indian Commerce Secretary S.R. Rao, in Dhaka for a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mahbub Ahmed, said his country had decided to accept Bangladesh's Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) for non-cement goods exported from Bangladesh. At the same time, India has begun offering two-year multiple visas to Bangladeshi businesspeople who want to trade with India.

3.   

Malaysia, India up trade target to US$20b

Malaysia and India have revised upwards the bilateral trade target to US$20 billion by 2015 from US$15 billion previously, with the robust movement of goods between the two nations, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today. He said two-way trade between the two countries has attained very encouraging growth. Last year, total trade increased 32.7 per cent over 2010 to reach US$12.54 billion. Malaysia's exports rose 34.6 per cent from US$6.5 billion in 2010 to US$9.2 billion last year.

4.   

China-India ties witness progress in 2012

India ties witnessed a positive momentum in 2012, the year that also saw the once-in-a-decade leadership change in China's ruling CPC, with the two Asian giants reaching a "common understanding" on the progress made in the 15 rounds of their border talks so far. The "common understanding" was reached during parleys between National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and China's State Councillor Dai Bingguo here in early December.