‘ASEAN transformed into vibrant body’

Islamabad: Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood has said that Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has transformed into a vibrant 10-member body, an increasingly integrated economic community and a central pillar of regional architecture.

Sohail Mahmood said that Pakistan needs to prioritise five areas of cooperation with ASEAN; strengthening of Pak-ASEAN connectivity, support for the business communities to comprehensively upgrade economic cooperation with ASEAN countries, focus on tourism, explore avenues of cooperation in Science & Technology, IT and higher education and lastly deepen our cultural exchanges.

Sohail Mahmood was speaking as chief guest at the Pakistan-ASEAN Experts Dialogue on 'Pakistan-ASEAN: shared future and the way forward' organised here by the Centre for Strategic Perspectives (CSP) at Institute of Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Indonesian Embassy and the ASEAN Committee in Islamabad (ACI).

Speakers from Indonesia and Pakistan made short presentations on three dimensions of Pakistan-ASEAN cooperation including political and security cooperation; economic collaboration; and socio-cultural cooperation. The speakers included Dr. Dewi Fortuna, Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Fithra Faisal Hastiadi, Executive Director of Next Policy, Dr Shofwan Al Bana, Executive Secretary, ASEAN Study Centre, Dr Usman Chohan, Director, Economic Affairs, CASS, Adam, M Tugio, Chairperson, ASEAN Committee in Islamabad and Mian Sanaullah, former ambassador of Pakistan to Indonesia.

Director CSP, Najam Rafique, said that it seeks to bring together experts and practitioners of policy together to make recommendations for a comprehensive engagement between Pakistan and ASEAN under Pakistan’s Vision East Asia and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s desire for geo-economic engagement with regional countries.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director-General ISS, said that this is the start of a process, and that such dialogues help in generating ideas for future engagement.