Bangkok: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will not join the mega regional comprehensive economic partnership deal as negotiations failed to address New Delhi’s outstanding issues and concerns. Modi in his address in the summit on Monday made the announcement in his speech at the RCEP summit here which was attended by several world leaders.

          He said that the present form of the RCEP agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of the RCEP. It also does not address satisfactorily on India’s outstanding issues and concerns, he added. It’s not possible for India to join RCEP agreement, he said. The RCEP comprises 10 asian nations and six of its FTA (Free Trade Agreement), Partners i.e, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Newzealand.

       However India opted out of the RCEP. The original RCEP was aiming to facilitate the creation of the biggest Free Trade Region in the world as the 16 Nation grouping in home to 3.6 billion people.