External Affairs Minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris led the Sri Lanka delegation to the 9th Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Member States, which commenced in Tehran, Iran yesterday.

The ACD aims to constitute the “missing link in Asia” by incorporating every Asian country and building an Asian Community. The ACD Ministerial Meetings enable an on-going dialogue between high level policy makers of 31 Asian powers, encompassing a wide geographical stretch from East to West Asia.

At the ACD-9 Ministerial Meeting, ACD Member States will explore how to further consolidate and promote cooperation in Asia towards fortifying Asia's competitiveness and maximizing the diversity and rich resources in Asia, thus leading to economic development in critical areas such as tourism, energy cooperation and ICT.

The theme of ACD-9 is “Towards Asian Solidarity and Integrity: Promoting Prosperity, Peace and Justice”.

Further, the ongoing global economic crisis has had serious socio-economic and political consequences for all countries, and the 9th ACD Ministerial Meeting will consider measures to address the impact of the crisis on Member Countries.

On the sidelines of the ACD -9 Ministerial Meeting, Minister Peiris will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Brunei, Kuwait and Oman.

Sri Lanka hosted the 8th Asia Cooperation Dialogue Ministerial Meeting in Colombo from 14 – 15 October 2009. Sri Lanka chaired the ACD until September 2010, when Sri Lanka handed over the Chair of the ACD to Iran.