The 31st Session of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was held on Saturday, 27 July, in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The event was attended by Foreign Ministers and representatives from twenty-seven ARF member states. Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs led the delegation of Bangladesh. The delegation included, among others, Bangladesh Ambassador to Lao PDR Md. Lutfor Rahman and Director-General Rais Hasan Sarower, ndc. The meeting exchanged views on wide range of regional and international issues to address the existing and growing challenges to maintain international peace and security. The leaders also put forward several directives to enhance security dialogues under the auspices of ARF for coming years.
In his statement, Dr. Momen stressed the need for intensifying economic relations and connectivity, both physical and people-to-people to build confidence among the nations which would pave the way to promote global peace and stability. While referring the unprecedented time of war and conflict across the globe, Dr. Momen reiterates Bangladesh’s strong position for regional economic peace and stability particularly in the Asia specific region for its sustained economic development, and its unwavering support to the people of Palestine and called for immediate end of war in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere. He also sought for a renewed support from the ARF member states to facilitate repatriation of forcibly displaced Myanmar Nationals.
Dr. Momen also had a courtesy call on the Prime Minister of Lao, when he invited him to visit Bangladesh also as current Chair of ASEAN to see the plight of 1.2 million displaced people of Myanmar in Bangladesh.
At the side line of the meeting, he had fruitful meetings with a host of important Heads of Delegations including the Deputy Prime Minister & Foreign Minister of Lao, Foreign Ministers of USA, China, Russia, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, EU, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Canada, Japan, and Australia.
Mention worthy, in 1993, during the 26th Session of ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was formed with an objective to foster dialogue and cooperation on political and security issues to promote confidence building in Asia Pacific region. Bangladesh became a member of ARF in 2006. At present Bangladesh is the co-chairs of two priority areas of ARF: Disaster Relief and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime.