REMARKS: Opening Remarks by Deputy Secretary General, Esala Nayasi at ASEAN-PIF and ASEAN-IORA Dialogue

•    Your Excellency Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, SOM Leader ASEAN-Indonesia

•    Your Excellency Nararya Soeprapto, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General for Community and Corporate Affairs

•    Madame Amanda Aspden, IORA Director Trade and Investment Initiatives and Climate Change,

•    Senior Officials

•    Ladies and Gentlemen

•    Ni sa bula Vinaka and a very good morning to you all

•    At the outset, please also allow me to thank the ASEAN and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia for the arrangements and courtesies accorded to me and my delegation to enable us to be here today.

•    It is my privilege to be with you today for the inaugural ASEAN-PIF and ASEAN-IORA Dialogue, aimed at strengthening cooperation between our Secretariats.

•    I thank you for the opportunity to offer some reflections on our respective regional priorities and areas for future cooperation.

•    Engagement and cooperation with ASEAN is important for a regional organisation like PIFS for a number of reasons which include:

i)    We are from the same regional grouping within the UN architecture and our countries share common challenges even though we also have different contexts and characteristics.
ii)    We both value the importance of multilateralism, regionalism and also see the great value that inter-regional cooperation can play in creating better understanding amongst ourselves and in bringing us closer together.
iii)    We both seek to promote prosperity for our people in areas of collective interests and we pursue these through regional cooperation and effective partnerships to address our common developmental challenges. 
iv)    And we both find ourselves at the centre of rising geopolitical interest in our respective regions which bring with it opportunities for deeper inter-regional cooperation.  

•    Just over a year ago, at the 43rd ASEAN Summit, the signing of the PIFS and ASEAN MoU marked a significant step in regional cooperation in areas such as maritime security, sustainable development, people-to-people exchanges, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian assistance.

•    Indeed, the context in which we work is constantly changing, and the areas on which we must focus our attention are evolving.

•    In this connection, collaboration and cooperation between regional organisations has become increasingly important.

•    Importantly, this Dialogue also presents us with an opportunity to identify common priorities and to lay the groundwork for revitalized frameworks for cooperation that deliver tangible results, including in the areas of:

i.    peer-to-peer cooperation, including south-south cooperation and triangular cooperation programmes
ii.    systems and institutional strengthening to support effective partnerships and strengthened coordination of partner mechanisms, including with the United Nations
iii.    best practice on good governance and human rights initiatives
iv.    regional cooperation on human and labour mobility
v.    trade and supply chain resilience and strengthening sustainable connectivity and
vi.    humanitarian assistance efforts to improve system and institutional strengthening

•    In closing, I recognize this partnership as an ideal model for other regional and inter- regional partnerships and in the spirit of cooperation I look forward to further discussing these issues throughout the course of this afternoon.

•    With that, I thank you for inviting the Forum Secretariat to join this conversation today, which I am sure will result in many positive outcomes for our regions.

•    I Thank You.

•    Vinaka saka vakalevu.