CM Sarbananda Sonowal Inaugurates Second ASEAN- India Youth Summit

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who inaugurated the 2nd ASEAN-Inda Youth Summit at a hotel in Guwahati on Sunday, underlined the need for ‘mutual cooperation among the ASEAN countries for strengthening the multilateral relations of the region.

Sarbananda Sonowal said that the present day world order, friendly relations among the 10 ASEAN countries and three BBN countries are of immense importance for promoting and strengthening the mutual interests like trade and commerce, education, health, connectivity, socio-cultural integration etc.

Talking on the importance of youth-led development in India and elsewhere in ASEAN countries, Sonowal said that the second ASEAN- India Youth Summit being held in Guwahati will help in spearheading the development of the region which will be propelled exclusively by the youth forces.

Sarbananda Sonowal touched upon areas like human resources, spiritual resources, tourism resources and on the top of everything is country’s IT resources and urged the youth from all the ASEAN countries to explore these areas and set an agenda for working together to script a success story for all the countries of the region. He also said that today, India is moving forward under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has enunciated the Act East Policy which entails increased people-to-people contact, trade and other relations with countries on India’s east particularly ASEAN countries. He also said that Prime Minister has put the north-eastern region at the heart of the Act East Policy. The policy puts the Northeast, which has so far been treated as a land-locked region, at the centre of India’s interaction with ASEAN.

Sarbananda Sonowal also said that many of ASEAN capitals are within 2,000 kilometre flying distance from Guwahati which is comparable to flying distance of Guwahati to many Indian cities. With locational advantage of sharing over 4,500 km of international boundary –the north-eastern region has all the potentials of emerging as a new growth hub.

Union Minister of State for Tourism KJ Alphonse said that in view of xenophobic ideas that are taking toll to the present day society, youth delegates from different ASEAN countries should think beyond ‘my own people, my own country’ for a mutually tolerant all encompassing world order.

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