YBhg. Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, The Director General of IDFR on 16 July 2012 presented a Lunch Talk entitled “ Malaysia’s Preparation for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015” for senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries of The Kingdom of Thailand. The event was held at the Narathip Auditorium in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Kingdom of Thailand, Bangkok.
The DG of IDFR was in Bangkok, Thailand in conjunction with the Diploma in Diplomacy (DiD) 2012 Attachment Programme at the Malaysian Embassy from the 14 till 21 July 2012. The attachment programme saw twelve of the DiD 2012 participants assigned to be attached to the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand while the other twelve were assigned to the Malaysia Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
During his talk, The DG of IDFR stressed on how significance of the AEC in 2015 as Malaysia will also assume the Chairmanship of ASEAN on the same year. During the question and answer session, the participants expressed their interested on the idea of utilising the concepts under the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), which is being promoted by Malaysia, to assist ASEAN member countries prepare themselves for AEC. The participants agreed that the GMM concept is not only applicable within the religious spectrum but may be applied in other areas such as economic and social development.
The DG of IDFR and the DiD 2012 participants later paid a courtesy call on the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, H.E. Mr. Chalermpol Thansitt where both party had discussed and exchanged ideas especially on the the program of training and grooming of young diplomats. The delegation was also briefed on the bilateral relations between Malaysia and Thailand by the East Asian Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.
