Lima, Nov. 16, 2004. The Deputy Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Wilfrido V. Villacorta, and CAN Secretary General Allan Wagner Tizón both pointed up the importance of strengthening institutional links and the enormous potential offered by closer cooperation between the Andean Community countries and those comprising Southeast Asia in trade, investment, and development matters.

The representatives of the two organizations agreed, in this context, to hold a joint seminar during the first half of next year.

The CAN Secretary General and the General Directors informed the representative of ASEAN, during his visit to the headquarters of the Andean organization in the course of his stay in Lima, about the advances made by the Andean process and that one of the core elements of its common foreign policy is to build a closer relationship with the Asia-Pacific countries.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional cooperation group.