Acting Chairman of ASEAN Committee in Islamabad, Wunna Han has said that Pakistan is the \u201cLongest Dialogue Partner of ASEAN\u201d countries in the region and relations between Pakistan and ASEAN will be more sustainable in the future. The ASEAN was founded on August 8th 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand and so, today is exactly the 58th Anniversary of the ASEAN, the Ambassador said. Acting Chairman of ASEAN Committee in Islamabad, Ambassador of Myanmar to Pakistan, Wunna Han said this while addressing the \u201c58th Anniversary of ASEAN\u201d here in a local hotel. Every commemoration is to reflect what \u201cwe have achieved so far and we pay our tribute to the founding fathers and successive leadership of this successful regional organization and their dreams and their visions\u201d , he said. Upon ASEAN-Pakistan relations, he said that \u201cwe value our partnership with Pakistan and Pakistan is 1st and foremost, and longest, \u201cSectoral Dialogue Partner of ASEAN.\u201d The Ambassador said that Pakistan signed the \u2018Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC)\u2019 in 2004 and was admitted as the 24th participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which is a very important forum to address regional peace and security issues. APP
\n\u201cWe appreciate and value Pakistan\u2019s active participation in ARF towards regional peace and security.\u201d
\n\u201cI congratulate Pakistan for being re-elected as the non-permanent member of United Nations Security Council (2025-2026) with a majority of 182 votes out of 193 UN member states in the UN General Assembly and it is an amazing and commendable achievement. This reflects Pakistan\u2019s respected role in multilateralism and commitment to the UN Charter\u2019s principles. Successfully completed the task as Presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of July,\u201d he said.
\nActing Chairman ACI said that under the ASEAN-Pakistan Sectoral Dialogue relations, both side have been implemented many collaborations and cooperation projects under the ASEAN-Pakistan Practical Cooperation Areas, PCA 2019-2021 and 2022 to 2023 and currently PCA 2024-2028 which include initiatives such as Scholarship programs under Pakistan Technical Assistance Program for students from ASEAN, Promotion of cultural exchanges and site visits of common cultural heritage, Sharing expertise on the handling of pandemics, Sharing expertise for poverty alleviation by the Benazir Income Support Program, Capacity building programs on Diplomacy and e-governance.
\n\u201cWe would like to work closely with Pakistan to tap the full potential of the partnership for mutual benefit. I would like to encourage Pakistan to support our ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and its strategic plans. At the same time, continue to actively undertake practical cooperation with ASEAN, across key areas of cooperation, such as implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC), Initiative of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network, ASEAN\u2019s sustainable development initiatives, and collaboration with ASEAN Centres of excellence.\u201d
\nThe Ambassador said that ASEAN nowadays is a strong and successful regional organization with 10 countries of Southeast Asian Nations combined together of 690 Million people and GDP of 4.12 Trillion USD estimated for this year 2025 standing as 5th largest economy of the world.
\nHe said that the 58 years journey of ASEAN has gone through and overcomes so many challenges, crises and hard times and if you look at each country of ASEAN you can see how diverse it is among our 10 countries of its member states.
\n\u201cWe have different cultures, different religions, different political systems and especially different levels of economic growth.\u201d
\nWhen ASEAN was founded nearly 60 years ago, it only had 5 original founding member countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, he added.
\nHe added that ASEAN nowadays is not only surviving but it is thriving and expanding and soon in the very near future, Timor-Leste will be joining us as the newest and 11th Member State of ASEAN.
\nIt fulfills the dream of the founding fathers of ASEAN that one day ASEAN will be united as all of Southeast Asia will be together as one. As the motto of ASEAN \u201cOne Vision, One Identity, One Community\u201d, he said.
\nThe Acting Chairman said that the main reason why ASEAN is united and going stronger is \u201cwe respect and practice based on guiding principles of ASEAN which is mutual respect among each other member state for their independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all member states.\u201d
\nAlso, the principle of non-interference in internal affairs of other states and peaceful settlement of disputes are core tenets of ASEAN. These principles guide us in shaping our interactions and operations through consultation and consensus. We are 10 countries with very diverse regions. We always proudly say that \u201cUnity in diversity\u201d.
\nHe said that \u201cI take this opportunity to commend Malaysia Current Chair of ASEAN, for always coming up with new visions and initiatives. In 1997 when we joined the ASEAN, at that time, also Malaysia was Chair of the ASEAN, we adopted ASEAN Vision 2020.\u201d
\nRecently, in May this year, again under the Chairmanship of Malaysia at the 46th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, ASEAN have adopted ASEAN Community Vision 2045, \u201cOur Shared Future,\u201d and reaffirmed ASEAN commitment to building a resilient, innovative, dynamic, people-centred ASEAN, he said
\nIt is an ambitious 20-year strategic roadmap for ASEAN and this roadmap will be implemented on regional peace, prosperity, and cooperation, and focuses on issues like energy transition, digital transformation, climate change, and emerging technologies, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acting Chairman of ASEAN Committee in Islamabad, Wunna Han has said that Pakistan is the \u201cLongest Dialogue Partner of ASEAN\u201d countries in the region and relations between Pakistan and ASEAN will be more sustainable in the future. The ASEAN was founded on August 8th 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand and so, today is exactly the 58th …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85208,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85206\/revisions\/85208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}