21/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - India and ASEAN strengthen their links. India and the ten countries of the South-East Asian bloc (Burma/Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) have doubled their free trade agreement on goods, which was concluded in 2010, with an agreement on services and investment concluded this week. Their objective is to bring a bilateral trade (which reached €58 billion in 2011) to €100 million by 2015. The EU continues its free trade negotiations with both India and several other countries from the ASEAN area. Its negotiations with India are in their final phase (see EUROPE 10664). An agreement has just been finalised with Singapore, talks are under way with Malaysia and Vietnam, and preliminary discussions are ongoing with Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines (see EUROPE 10753). (EH/transl.fl)