Tuesday, December 13 2005 18:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: With terrorism posing a major threat to the collective security of the region, India and ASEAN today (Dec 13, 2005) agreed to fight together the menace and strengthen maritime security in the piracy-infested Malacca Straits.

"Terrorism is still a major threat to our collective security in this region. We are saddened with the loss of lives as a result of the recent bombings in India (serial blast in Delhi in October)," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who is the current head of ASEAN said at the fourth India-ASEAN summit.

"We believe that it is timely to proceed with implementing some form of concrete cooperation based on the ASEAN-India Declaration on cooperation to combat international terrorism which was adopted in Bali," he said.

Corraborating Abdullah's viewpoint, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to further cooperation in these two areas, Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry Rajiv Sikri told reporters

Issue of intensifying cooperation in the field of terrorism between India-ASEAN figured prominently in the discussions, Prime Minister's media advisor Sanjaya Baru said.

Without spelling out what measures the two sides proposed to take, Sikri said both sides agreed to combat terrorism and India would be happy to cooperate with the littoral states to ensure security of the Malacca Straits.