KATHMANDU, March 11 (Nepal Foreign Affairs) : Thailand will host the Second Summit of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in October 2016, government officials said.
The 14th Ministerial Meeting of the ACD held in Bangkok on March 9 and 10 took a decision in this regard welcoming the proposal of Thailand to host the summit, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jung Bahadur Gurung said.
The meeting was inaugurated by General Prayut Chan-o-cha (Ret.), the Prime Minister of Thailand.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal, Kamal Thapa, led a six member Nepalese delegation to the Ministerial Meeting in the Thai Capital. The foreign minister expressed happiness over Nepal’s membership of the pan-Asian body. He 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.
According to a press release issued by the Nepal Embassy in Bangkok, 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 Meeting was attended by all the Member States of ACD represented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other Heads of Delegation.
DPM Thapa held separate meetings Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand Don Pramudwinai, who is also the current Chair of the ACD. The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral and regional matters of common interest.
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 also paid separate calls on Minister Kamal Thapa on the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting.