Highly-placed sources disclosed that the prime minister would be eastward bound for two to three weeks in mid-January 2001. He will visit Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan. Mr Vajpayee had proposed to visit Philippines too, but the country, on account of its fluid domestic condition, was dropped from the itinerary.

Accompanied by a high-level delegation, the Prime Minister will be meeting several prospective investors in all these countries. The high point of the visit is expected to be the strengthening of bilateral trade ties. Also, several agreements pertaining to investments in trade, defence cooperation and other areas in Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia are on the cards. Another reason cited is India's interest in the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and Asian Regional Forum (ARF).

Meanwhile, President Narayanan, who will be in Singapore for five days, will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a task force for economic cooperation. He is also expected to sign an agreement to promote cultural cooperation between the two countries.

The President's visit to Singapore is the first in 30 years, in which he will be accompanied by tourism and culture minister Ananth Kumar. Currently, cooperation between Singapore and India are in technical, trade and cultural fields. Singapore has been a key player in the Asian Pacific Region, and India sees it as a gateway to Asean, in which Singapore is a major player.

In Singapore, Mr Narayanan is expected to visit the Asian Civilisation Museum and attend a meeting with intellectuals.

Minister for external affairs Jaswant Singh, who is currently visiting Vietnam and Laos, is focusing on deepening defence cooperation with the two key Indo-China nations, besides exploring measures to enhance trade and investment relations, which currently remains at a low key.

According to official sources, Mr Singh will have wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues with the leaders of these countries and will offer India's expertise in maintenance of defence equipment and training of personnel.

Also, there is plenty of scope for enhancing defence cooperation with Laos too, as the profile of defence equipment used by that country India to `Look East' again matches with that of India.

Another important milestone of the visit will be the launch of the Ganga-Mekong `Swarnabhoomi' project in Laos. To begin with, the initiative is expected promote tourism, culture and education. This is also expected to lay the foundation for developing cooperation in the transport and infrastructure sector, the spokesperson added.

Vietnam, with which India has had close identity of views on several issues, has gone on record with its support for India's candidature for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Besides a trade turnover of $155 million, India also has close defence cooperation with Vietnam. A MoU on defence was signed during the visit of defence minister George Fernandes to Vietnam earlier this year.

India has been in the forefront in the economic development of these countries and has provided eight lines of credit totalling Rs 800 million to Vietnam since 1987. It also exports vital machinery and is involved in mining oil and potash.