New Delhi, Oct 05: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee left here tonight on a seven-day visit to Indonesia and Thailand, asserting the need for dealing with increasing spread of terrorism in South East Asian region and voiced concern over the fate of multilateralism in the modern world. Vajpayee, who will participate in Asean-India summit and hold bilateral talks with leaders of China, Japan, Korea and other countries of the regional forum, said "we have to deal with the increasing spread of terrorism in South East Asian region”.

The Prime Minister, who was seen off at the airport by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Planning Commission deputy chairperson K C Pant, cabinet secretary Kamal Pande and home secretary N Gopalaswami, said, "we are all concerned about the fate of multilateralism in the modern world”.

He said that unsatisfactory progress on Doha development agenda affected South East Asia in the same way as it affected India.
Bureau Report