Ambassador Adam Tugio underlines the need for stronger ASEAN-Pakistan ties
- Pakistan being the Sectoral dialogue partner has to build stronger ties with ASEAN : Prof. Dinna Prapto Raharja - Dr. Soherwordi underscores that SAARC countries have to learn the lessons from the ASEAN States
ISLAMABAD, April 29: Ambassador of Indonesia H.E. Adam M. Tugio has suggested a two-pronged strategy to strengthen Pakistan's ties with ASEAN. He said that although Pakistan needs to further develop its relations with ASEAN states on bilateral levels yet these ties should also take institutional i.e. ASEAN Secretariat, headquartered in Jakarta.
Ambassador Adam was speaking at the 6th session of the Online Internship Program "Contemporary Dynamics of Indonesia" which titled "The Miracle of ASEAN". The OIP is being jointly organized by the Embassy and University of Peshawar.
The Envoy stressed that the Pakistan should take full advantage of the recently concluded plan of actions extended for two years. He said that there were eleven potential areas that were identified by the two sides for collaboration including those of politics, economy and social & Cultural spheres.
He suggested that scholarship programs for the students from the ASEAN countries could help a lot in promoting people to people contact and general public interest in Pakistan. Ambassador Tugio mentioned that since last one year he has made sincere contributions in promoting relationship between ASEAN and Pakistan. He also mentioned of the publishing of the booklet that outlines the potential areas for cooperation between ASEAN and Pakistan.
The speaker at the OIP session, Prof. DinnaPraptoRaharja, a senior public policy advisor and a tenured Associate Professor in international relations at the Department of International Relations of Bina Nusantara University, said that the ASEAN was the fastest growing regional bloc in the world and Indonesia was at its heart being the largest country in SEA, over 270 million in population, 108,000 km in coastal lines, 17,504 islands, 8.3 million square km in territory, 3 time zones, over 1,300 ethnic groups, 300 languages, 6 religions & many traditional faiths.
She said that Pakistan is one of ASEAN Sectoral dialogue partner while other countries included Norway, Turkey, and Switzerland and the ASEAN has different emphasis and levels of cooperation with its Sectoral Dialogue Partners. She informed that economy, democracy and issue of terrorism were the highlights of the ASEAN cooperation with Pakistan.
To a question she said Indonesia is the country that was very much interested and eager in strengthening Pakistan ties with ASEAN. However, she noted that there were other countries in the ASEAN and they have their own priorities and understanding of importance of enhancing ties with Pakistan. She said that Indonesia is there to support Pakistan but Pakistan needs to build stronger ties with other ASEAN states as well that would eventually help cement its ties with ASEAN.
Dr. Syed HussainShaheedSoherwordi, Head of Department of International Relations on the Comparative study on SAARC, said that while EU and ASEAN were fully benefitting from the regional and economic cooperation, the South Asian states were busy in locking their horns with each other and their 96% exports were destined outside South Asia. He said that India has its border with almost every SAARC country and has issues with each one of them. He said that SAARC was still a volatile region and the SAARC countries needed to work together to make it stable and attractive for the foreign investment. He said that Afghanistan has remained one of the instability factor in the region but extremism was rampant and common issue in the region.
Dr. Soherwordi said that poverty, illiteracy, economic and industrial backwardness, over population, environmental degradation were common issues among the SAARC states and they should fight together all these ills. He said that there was dire need to for the SAARC countries to lean lessons from the ASEAN Countries.