Friday 15 August 2014

Southeast Asian Countries Seek Improved Ties With Nigeria





The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has called for improved relations with Nigeria given the nation’s immense human and material resources.

This was disclosed during the 47th ASEAN celebration, hosted by the Philippines Embassy in Abuja, recently. Though ASEAN has ten members, only the ambassadors of Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam were present.

At the event, the Malaysian Ambassador to Nigeria, Lim Juay Jin, said, “We are here to promote our countries individually and collectively. ASEAN has been an entity so far, to preserve peace and stability in Asia. ASEAN day is how we are bringing Asia to the Nigerian people.

For example, Jin said that Malaysia is home for Nigerian students. “We had a rough estimate of 10,000 Nigerians pursuing education in Malaysia. We also have so many similarities between both countries to include weather.

“The palm oil seed in Malaysia originally comes from Nigeria. In future we are looking at trade, investments, people relationships, and visits between the two countries.” He added that with ASEAN members have managed to link themselves with the other regions. At the moment member countries are working towards strengthening ASEAN/Nigeria relations.

In his own part, the Ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria, Chailert Limsom Boon, said, “ASEAN is very successful in promoting peace and stability in the Asian region. We have very good economic relations among ASEAN countries” something Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can learn from. “How we did it, we cannot say exactly, we just say we have an ASEAN way of doing things. We don’t know each other very well. We need to learn more about each other.”


http://leadership.ng/news/381059/southeast-asian-countries-seek-improved-ties-nigeria

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