ARF officials agree on Pakistan's membership

ARF officials agree on Pakistan's membership

Agencies Yogyakarta

India on Wednesday endorsed Pakistan's application to join a regional security forum after an assurance that Pakistan would not use it as a platform to raise bilateral issues such as Kashmir.

Officials from the 23-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) agreed to admit Pakistan and will recommend the decision to their ministers who will meet in Jakarta in early July.

"The senior official meeting recommend the ARF members approve Pakistan admittance as a ARF participant, taking into account the formal and solemn assurances of Pakistan," said a concluding statement of two-day meeting of senior officials of ARF's existing members held in Yogyakarta.

"Pakistan has given an assurance through Indonesia that it will not raise Indian-Pakistani bilateral issues at the ARF," Spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marty A. Natalegawa said.

At Wednesday's meeting India demanded that the Pakistani assurance be mentioned in the recommendation, he said.

He said the officials agreed to invite Pakistan to attend the Jakarta meeting on July 1-2.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last year agreed to allow Pakistan to join the ARF. But India had in the past blocked it on concerns that Pakistan would take issues like Kashmir to the forum.

Nuclear-capable India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947. Relations have thawed in the past year and they have launched a dialog process to clear up all issues.

The ARF includes the 10 ASEAN countries and partners Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, South and North Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, and the United States.

France, Britain, Kazakshstan, Kyrgyzstan, East Timor, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have also applied to join the ARF, Natalegawa said. He said these applications have not yet been discussed.