Foreign minister joins key ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Kuala Lumpur

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has joined foreign ministers’ meeting at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur.

ARF is a key forum for security dialogue in Asia that draws 27 member countries of the Asia Pacific region. Malaysia is the current Chair of the forum.

This forum has been working for the confidence building measures with ultimate aim of reaching a position of conflict resolution through preventive diplomacy.

This year’s meeting that commenced on Wednesday would see the adoption of several work plans and initiatives to guide the future ARF process.

The work plans aimed to tackle several issues affecting the region, such as maritime security, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, transnational crime, security and the use of information and communication technology.

The foreign minister reached Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night to attend the 22nd meeting of the forum.

Apart from the meeting, he is expected to make a number of courtesy calls on his counterparts from India, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Norway, China, and Japan.

He would also have a meeting with the Malaysian home minister, diplomats at the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur said.

During the meeting, the minister would discuss recruitment of Bangladeshi workers and implementation of the visa waiver agreement for the diplomatic and official passport holders, among others.

He will be joining at the retreat and plenary session of the ARF on Thursday, and make his statement on the regional and international security issues reflecting Bangladesh's perspectives.

Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, North Korea, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippine, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United States and Vietnam are the participating countries.