ASEAN and Africa Union have agreed to step up bilateral cooperation in anumber of fields, said the ASEAN Secretariat in a press release issuedon May 3.

The consensus was reached during arecent meeting between the Secretary General of ASEAN, Surin Pitsuwanand Maxwell M. Mkwezalamba, Head of the African Union Commission’s (AUC)delegation to the second Inter-Regional Dialogue on Democracy (IRDD) inJakarta , Indonesia .

According to the pressrelease, the two leaders discussed ways of creating successful regionalcommunities, regional economic integration, political and securitycooperation and development cooperation as well as addressing thechallenges faced by both blocs.

Mkwezalambaapplauded ASEAN’s efforts to create a community by 2015 and was full ofpraise for the economic achievements ASEAN member countries have made.

The ASEAN Secretary General recalled the synergybetween Asia and Africa , which was first recognised at the BandungConference in 1955, and subsequent senior-level meetings as well asefforts to forge closer ties and cooperation between the two continents.These include the First Asian-African Sub-Regional OrganisationsConference (AASROC) held in April 2003 in Bandung , Indonesia and thesecond AASROC held in South Africa in August 2004.

Both underlined the significance of the Asia-Africa Summit and theGolden Jubilee Celebrations for the Asia-Africa Conference 1955 byreferring to the adoption of the Declaration on the New Asia-AfricaStrategic Partnership.

The declaration emphasisesthe need to encourage more cooperation between the two continents intrade, industry, investment, tourism, information and communicationstechnology, energy security, transportation, agriculture, waterresources and fisheries.-VNA