IANS/Guwahati
The Asean-India Car Rally 2012 came to an end here yesterday with the Assam government according a red carpet welcome to the 124 participants in 31 vehicles who covered 8,000km across nine countries.
The Assam government had lined up a four-hour cultural extravaganza to welcome the rally participants and other guests, including ambassadors of the Asean countries.
While the extravaganza included cultural representations from some of the northeastern states, it also included a daredevil show presented by the “Panther on Wheels” of the Assam Police and a demonstration by the “Veeranganas” - the first-ever all women police battalion of Assam.
Union Federal Minister of State for Industry and Commerce D Purandeswari was present at the flag-down ceremony at the Sarusojai stadium. She called the rally, which was kicked-off from Yogyakarta in Indonesia on November 26, a journey of new discovery, partnership and bonding.
“India has been seeking great co-operation from the Asean neighbours ever since it initiated the Look East policy in 1991. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of Asean in 1992, which was upgraded to full dialogue partnership in 1996. The country had signed Asean-India dialogue partnership in 2001,” she said
The rally was also organised to commemorate the 20 years of Asean-India relationship as well as to commemorate the 10 years of Asean-India Dialogue Partnership, she said.
“I hope the rally this year will help in bringing the Asean economy closer to us,” said Purandeshwari, who added that India had also been working on improved road connectivity with the Asean countries.
“The rally symbolises land connectivity between Asean and India and will boost people-to-people contact between India and Asean,” she said.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi hoped that the rally will promote goodwill and co-operation besides trade and commerce between Asean and India, particularly for the northeastern states of India.