Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Inter-sessional Support Group (ISG) on Confidence Building Measures

March 31, 2000

The Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Inter-sessional Support Group (ISG) on Confidence Building Measures will be held in Singapore (Hotel Mandarin Singapore) on April 5 (Wed) and 6 (Thu).
The ARF-ISG Meeting is held at the working level of ARF's member countries during the one-year inter-sessional period between annual ministerial meetings. The forthcoming one will be the second of its kind to be held twice in the inter-sessional period up to the next ministerial meeting due to take place at the end of July this year (the first was held in Tokyo on November 13 and 14 last year.). The ARF-ISG meeting will be co-chaired by Japan and Singapore.
The meeting will be attended by the officials concerned in both foreign affairs and defense (levels of deputy director-generals and directors) from 22 ARF members (including the EU), including Mr. Yoshihiro Nishida, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Policy Bureau (co-chairperson), of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
The meeting will examine the ARF's future direction including confidence building measures in the ARF process and efforts for preventive diplomacy, and discuss developments in the regional security situation since the first meeting of last year. The outcome of this meeting will be reported to the ARF Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) to be held in Bangkok in the middle of May this year.

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