Islam Times - Asia Cooperation Dialogue, the Missing Linking Ring for Asian Economic Integration

Asia Cooperation Dialogue, the Missing Linking Ring for Asian Economic Integration

Islam Times - The 19th foreign ministerial meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) was held was on Monday in the Iranian capital Tehran with the presence of 41 diplomatic delegations from over 30 countries.

Iran took over chairmanship of the ACD last year under the prolific late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and picked "a more connected and empowered Asia through new and emerging technologies" as its slogan.

This meeting was held with active presence of senior political officials of the member states and once again displayed the weight and power of acting of Iran in Asian developments, giving an opportunity to discuss grounds for development of bilateral and multilateral relationship of Asian nations.

Iran's acting Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani on Sunday in a statement said that "this event paves the way for promoting the inter-Asian cooperation."

In his statement, he called for end of the exclusive hegemony of the West over the international political, economic, monetary, and financial systems, adding that this is "a vital matter."

As the diplomatic meetings were one of the main events on the sidelines of the Tehran summit, Baqeri in an X post commented what he discussed with the visiting officials, saying: "In these meetings, the Asian approach to multilateralism, areas of cooperation, confronting unilateralism, bilateral relations, the need to stop the crimes of the occupying Israeli regime in Gaza and other issues of interest to the parties were discussed."

The missing linking ring in Asian integration

The ACD is an inter-governmental organization founded by 18 countries on June 18, 2002 with the aim of improving the Asian cooperation continentwide and helping the merger of regional organizations.

The founding members are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

At present, 35 Asian countries are members of the ACD and the headquarters of this organization is in Kuwait.

The idea of forming this organization was proposed by Surakiart Sathirathai, the prime minister of Thailand, at the 34th meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in 2001.

Thaksin Shinawatra, then Thailand prime minister, in the inauguration session of the organization in 2002 said that "a new chapter in history begins today."

Before the formation of this organization, all the Asian assemblies and institutions had a sub-regional character, for example: ASEAN, ASEAN+3, (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council, ECO, SICA, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), and South and Southeast Asian Economic Cooperation Organization. However, when the ACD was formed, for the first time, it was able to achieve the prospect of forming a coalition with the membership of countries from all parts of Asia, namely Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia.

The formation of this organization was a key principle for increasing the power and economic competitiveness of Asia by actualizing the capacities of this continent on the world stage. Actually this body is based on the view that Asian countries need synergy and creation of a common strategy in order to overcome the challenges of the new century to look at each other not as competitors, but as partners and allies.

The main goals of the ACD are as follows:

1. Promoting the cooperation of Asian countries in all identified strengths and opportunities to help reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of Asian people with the development of scientific infrastructures.

2. Development of economy and financial markets, increasing the bargaining power and, hence, the power of competition in the international markets instead of competition among the member states.

3. Focusing on positive points and capabilities of member states in an economic sector to transform the members into reliable partners for other regions.

4. Transforming Asia into a community capable of communicating with other parts of the world to help Asian growth and welfare and bring positive peace in this community.

This organization does not have a charter and has two sections of dialogue and project. Under dialogue section, the ministers of the group meet every year at the ministerial meeting to discuss the developments of the group, regional cooperation issues, and ways to strengthen the unity of Asia. Also, the ministers of foreign affairs of this organization meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September every year to exchange information on the organization's projects, discuss international issues, and boost voice of Asia on the world stage.

Under the section of project, so far 20 grounds of cooperation in various areas were defined under 6 general sectors: Communications, science and innovation, education and human resources development, the interconnection of food security, energy and water, culture and tourism, and promotional approaches to comprehensive and sustainable development.

The organization's opportunities for Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran joined the organization in June 21, 2004, and during this time it has played an active role in its meetings, to a degree that in 2009, Iran was chosen as a pioneer country of cultural cooperation and the third summit was hosted by Tehran in 2018.

Having in mind that at present a major part of the Iranian foreign trade is with regional and Asian countries and Asia is the most important trade partner of Iran, the more the network of interaction and cooperation of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue grows, the more interests Iran can enjoy for neutralizing the Western sanctions and boosting Iranian integration in the international markets.

The Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy, Mahdi Safari, said that "this meeting can play a role in boosting trade and exchange of industrial and transportation technologies among the members from China to Europe."

Taking new decisions on holding periodic and regular meetings of the presidents of the chambers of commerce of the member countries of the organization is one of the important mechanisms for the economic integration of Asian markets as a main goal, and in this field, Iran has been a pioneer country in launching this mechanism, as in May this year, the Iranian city of Isfahan hosted the second joint meeting of the heads of chambers of commerce of the members.

Boosting cultural and tourist contacts of Asian countries under this organization is one of the ways granting economic opportunities to Iran and is capable of playing a key role in introducing the unique tourist and climate potentials of Iran to the world.

In this area, too, Iran's cultural diplomacy in the organization in 2023 made a major gain when the naturally, historically, and culturally-rich central city of Yazd was named the tourism capital of ACD for 2024.