Nepal becomes member of Asian Cooperation Dialogue

Kathmandu / March 10: Nepal has become the 34th member of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). Nepal’s membership of the ACD was unanimously approved by the 14th Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on Thursday.

According to a press statement released by Nepali’s Embassy in Bangkok, the 14th Ministerial Meeting was opened by General Prayut Chan-o-cha (Ret.) Prime Minister of Thailand while Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and the current Chair of ACD, Don Pramudwinai, welcomed Nepal as the 34th member of ACD.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kamal Thapa, was leading the Nepalese delegation to the Ministerial Meeting. DPM Thapa expressed happiness over Nepal’s membership of the pan-Asian body, sincerely thanked the ACD-members for their unanimous support for Nepal’s membership, and committed to work closely and constructively with other members to make the ACD an influential and effective association.

All the Member States welcomed Nepal as the 34th Member of the ACD in their statements and extended their best wishes.

Meanwhile, the meeting welcomed the proposal to enhance the ACD mechanism by consolidating the ACD 20 Areas of Cooperation into the 6 priority pillars such as, (i) Connectivity, (ii) Science, Technology and Innovation (iii) Education and Human Resource Development (iv) Interrelation of Food, Energy and Water Security (v) Culture and Tourism (vi) Promoting Approaches to Inclusive and Sustainable Development.

The Ministers also welcomed Thailand’s proposal to host the 2nd ACD Summit in October 2016.

The meeting was attended by all the Member States of ACD represented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other heads of delegation.

Meanwhile, DPM Thapa had a separate meeting with Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and the current Chair of the ACD Thursday afternoon. The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral and regional matters of common interest.

On Thursday itself, Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sartaz Aziz, and Minister’s Assistant for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Abdulla bin Faisal bin Jabur Al Doseri, called on DPM Thapa on the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting. The DPM Thapa left Bangkok for New Delhi Thursday evening. RSS