While they agreed that no formal request had been made either to the ADB or the ASEAN+3 countries, they admitted they had even asked the RBI to give its feedback on when India should join the ACU. ‘‘It is very critical to know whether to join now or at a later stage and both have their advantages and disadvantages.’’

For instance, the biggest worry for India is not to become the Turkey of South Asia. Turkey is finding it very difficult to become part of the common European Union currency, euro.

While collectively the ASEAN+3 group of countries have decided to keep India initially out of the common ACU, individual member countries have different opinions on India’s involvement.

For instance, Japan is fearful of a strong China and therefore may be happy with India’s involvement. However, it has not made its view open about it.

Similarly, there are countries such as Singapore that want India to be part of ASEAN+3 but countries like Malaysia are not too keen on this format, sources said.

Interestingly, earlier, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda indicated that while India may not enter the ASEAN +3 group for the ACU but could definitely be part of a larger ASEAN +3+3 sort of grouping which also includes New Zealand and Australia.

However, today, South Korea’s Han Duck-Soo was totally non-committal to even this sort of grouping becoming part of the ACU.