Dhaka wants to deeply engage with Asean: Foreign minister

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Friday said Bangladesh wants to engage deeply with Asean, the 8th largest economy of the world as single entity, as the group has enormous potentials to grow further from which Bangladesh can be benefited, reports UNB.  
"In order to deeply engage with Asean, Bangladesh recently accredited its Ambassador to Indonesia as Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to Asean," he said while addressing a function on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the founding of Asean at the Indonesian Embassy in Dhaka.
For the last few years, Bangladesh has been pursuing to become Asean Dialogue Partner, for which there is a moratorium on its expansion up to the end of 2015, said  Mr Mahmood Ali.
Terming Bangladesh a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia, the foreign minister lauded the role of Asean Dhaka Chapter for forging a closer Bangladesh-Asean relationship in the interest of all the people.
Ambassador of the Union of Myanmar to Bangladesh and Chairman, Asean Dhaka Committee Ambassador Myo Myint Than and Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Bangladesh Iwan Wiranata-atmadja were, among others, present.
The minister said Bangladesh has taken serious interest in the developments in Asean countries and in Asean itself, and was therefore contemplating to become a member of Asean Regional Forum (ARF), an offshoot of the Asean and later joined ARF.  He extended the warmest greetings and heartiest felicitations to the governments and peoples of Asean countries on the occasion, on behalf of the government of Bangladesh and on his own behalf.  The Foreign Minister also said Bangladesh has always maintained very friendly relations with her close neighbours and countries in the extended eastern neighbourhood, including all the South East Asian countries.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is one of the very strong regional organisations which covers about 9 per cent of the world's population.
It is based on regional integration through "three pillars"- political security, socio-cultural integration, and economic integration.
The regional grouping has made the most significant progress in economic integration which is expected to be further cemented by creating an Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.