Phuket (Thailand): India and three member-countries of the BIMSTEC economic grouping will sign a landmark Framework Agreement on Free Trade Area today (Feb 8, 2004), a major step towards greater free trade in Asia which is witnessing unprecedented growth in sub-regional co-operation frameworks.

"By spanning two important regions, BIMSTEC is the logical linking mechanism to bring together various interlocking pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is Asia," Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surakiart Sathirathai told the sixth BIMSTEC Ministerial meeting.

Besides India, the other signatories include Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal will sign it at a later date. The latter two - Bhutan and Nepal - joined the grouping formally only yesterday.

Under the Framework Agreement, tariffs will be reduced to zero by the year 2012 for the developed countries of the grouping, that is India and Thailand, and by 2017 for the developing nations of the grouping.

Surakiart told the meeting, being attended by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, that Asia was today witnessing an "unprecedented growth of sub-regional co-operation frameworks."