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USA DUA: ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has turned to Twitter to raise awareness about the Southeast Asian nation bloc.

“I was tweeting when [Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] delivered his speech [at the opening of the 44th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Tuesday],” Surin Pitsuwan told journalists in a limited interview in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday.

Surin, who has 4,562 followers on his Twitter account, become a member of microblogging social network on July 26, 2009. He said he wanted to keep informed the people who were interested enough in ASEAN to follow his account.

“The best part is when people re-tweet my messages. I can connect to hundreds of thousands of people if two or three people re-tweet a message,” he said.

“They [Twitter followers] respond and give their opinions, sometimes very sarcastic, sometimes very supportive and sometimes very helpful.”