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ndia and ASEAN formed on Saturday a framework of bilateral cooperation in the agriculture sector that would last for at least five years.

ASEAN ministers or their deputies met with Indian Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Sharad Pawar to arrange matters related to agricultural development and food trade in the region.

“The meeting is expected to initiate solid and beneficial bilateral relations. For ASEAN, India is an important partner not only economically, but also for human resources and research development,” said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono.

The meeting was held after the 33rd ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) meeting.

The meeting’s organizing committee head, Achmad Suryana, said that the cooperation would cover joint agreements to upgrade human resources related to the agricultural sector to transfer knowledge, research and development and to set quality standards for food trade in the future.

The 11 countries also agreed to meet annually.

“This year, ASEAN will be the host country, but next year, India will take the lead,” Suryana said.

He said that all the meeting participants delivered ideas and expectations for materializing the agreement.

“We have yet to create a detailed and final agreement because it is just the beginning,” he added.

However, Suryana said that several key factors such as the standardization of food commodities were among the topics at the meeting.

“There are big possibilities that agricultural commodity trade between ASEAN and India will happen in the future,” he said. “That’s why it was discussed so early.”

Rice, crude palm oil, spices and vegetables were among the potential agricultural commodities to be traded between ASEAN and India.

“The standardization should be set up at the regional level rather than a country-to-country level,” he said, adding that standardization was meant to ensure product quality.

Suryana added that the cooperation would adopt the model of ASEAN Plus Three with China, Japan and South Korea.

“There will be training of agricultural experts to improve the quality of the agricultural sector,” he said.

Suryana also said that the ministerial meeting could be used to intensify Indonesia-India relations in the sector.

“Trade ministers from the two countries have talked about increasing trade. We hope the meeting can provide benefits to the future trade of Indonesia and India,” he said.

On Tuesday, India and Indonesia held the first Biennial Trade Ministers’ Forum in Jakarta to double the surging bilateral trade and forge a strong economic partnership between the two countries.

India expected to invest in the automotive, textile, chemical, banking, telecommunications, steel and aluminum industries along with several infrastructure projects such as building railway lines, seaports and airports.

For Indonesia, India is a major trading partner for its coal, palm oil, rubber, paper and chemicals.

According to the Central Statistics Agency, bilateral trade was valued at US$13.20 billion last year. In the first half of this year, the two countries recorded $8.9 billion in trade, up from $5.79 billion last year.

On Thursday, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma agreed to make a target of $25 billion trade by 2015. (lfr)