In a move towards closer cooperation with ASEAN, the Cabinet on Thursday approved India's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South East Asia.

India's position on accession to the 1976 treaty has been consistently positive and will demonstrate its determination to cooperate in the maintenance of peace and stability in South East Asia and Asia Pacific as well as closer cooperation with ASEAN, an government spokesperson said after a Cabinet meeting.

India had expressed its willingness to accede to the treaty in a joint statement issued at the end of the first India-ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2002, which was appreciated by the ASEAN countries.

The guiding principles for member states for conducting relations with each other are mutual respect for independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity besides right of every state to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion and noninterference in internal affairs.