DUSHANBE, October 14, 2008, Asia-Plus — On Wednesday October 15, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi will leave for Astana, Kazakhstan to attend the 7th Ministerial meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) that will be held there on October 16, according to the Tajik MFA.
Foreign ministers from 30 Asian countries are expected to attend the 7th ACD Ministerial meeting in Astana.
The meeting is aiming to consider a broad range of issues related to energy, food security, finance, and development of the information technologies, the Tajik MFA said.
The Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was inaugurated in June 2002 in Cha-Am, Thailand, where 18 Asian Foreign Ministers met together for the first time. The ACD is a continent-wide forum, the first of its kind in Asia. More specifically, the ACD aims to constitute the missing link in Asia by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community without duplicating other organizations or creating a bloc against others. A key principle is to consolidate Asian strengths and fortify Asia”s competitiveness by maximizing the diversity and rich resources evident in Asia. The core values of the ACD are positive thinking; informality; voluntarism; non-institutionalization; openness; respect for diversity; the comfort level of member countries; and the evolving nature of the ACD process.
Since its inception, the ACD has rapidly developed in two dimensions, namely, dialogue and projects.
On the dialogue dimension, ACD Ministers meet annually to discuss ACD developments, issues of regional cooperation and ways to enhance and solidify Asian unity. In between, Foreign Ministers also meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September to update each other on the progress of ACD project cooperation, to hold constructive discussions on international issues of concern and to strengthen the ”voice of Asia” in the international arena.
On the projects dimension, currently, many countries have proposed to be prime movers in 19 areas of cooperation, such as energy, agriculture, biotechnology, tourism, poverty alleviation, IT development, e-education and financial cooperation.
At the community level, Thailand hosted the First ACD Think Tanks Symposium in December 2004 and has put together an ACD Think Tank Network composed of academic institutions, development networks and research groups nominated by ACD countries to serve as the academic arm of ACD. The objectives are to conduct in-depth study and support the development of the ACD as well as facilitate prime mover projects.
Currently, the ACD comprises 30 countries: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan admitted at the Fifth ACD Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar in May 2006.
