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ASEAN policy should favor Southeast Asian people, officials say
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ASEAN flag (illustration). (Shutterstock/*)
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SEAN should be more progressive in ensuring that its priority programs are in line with the interests of the Southeast Asian people in order to realize a fully people-centered ASEAN Community, Foreign Ministry officials have said.
The Ministry's director general for ASEAN cooperation, Jose Tavares, said Southeast Asian leaders should be able to translate the ASEAN 2025 Roadmap into various programs that could transfer the organization's vision so that people in the region could feel ASEAN's positive impact.
"The programs should really benefit all people on the ground, so that ASEAN will always continue to be relevant in the eyes of the people living in Southeast Asia," Jose told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar to commemorate the Centre for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) 45th anniversary.
He asserted that ASEAN in its first year of community had been moving in the right direction in realizing itself as an inclusive organization, adding that it must continue to play its role of maintaining peace and stability to create a conducive environment for economic development in the region.
Meanwhile, the Ministry's director for ASEAN Political-Security Cooperation, Chandra Widya Yudha, said Indonesia and Southeast Asian leaders would use the momentum of the next ASEAN summit in Vientiane next week to continue strengthening regional cooperation.
CSIS executive director Philips Vermonte said track two diplomacy — engagement between non-state actors like the private sector or think tanks — should be strengthened among the people in the region, especially when discussing sensitive issues. Among the crucial issues the community now faces is the South China Sea dispute and the ASEAN Economic Community. (ags)
