For quite some time Indonesia has had a good relation with countries in the South East Asian regions. This relation has become stronger with the establishment of ASEAN and is further reinforced by the ASEAN leaders’ intention to establish the ASEAN Community in 2015.

For Indonesia, the realization of the ASEAN Community is one of the focuses on its foreign policy. It has had a long and rewarding history of partnership with the initial members of ASEAN, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and the Philippines; nonetheless, Indonesia still needs to weave a stronger partnership with the association’s new members (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), specifically in achieving the motto One Vision, One Identity, and One Community.

Cooperation in the Education and Training sector may be one of the means to form such partnership. Such cooperation will also increase the human resource capacity of the new ASEAN members involved.

For the second time around, the Centre for Education and Training of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry is holding a Short Diplomatic Course for the senior diplomats from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Meanwhile, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, two non-members which aspire to join and work closely with ASEAN are also participating.

This activity receives warm appreciation and enthusiasm from those nations, and this is reflected by their willingness to send participants according to their quota. The event which is planned to be held annually is taking place from 12 to 30 July 2010.

Over and above conforming and reinforcing ASEAN’s new motto, One Vision, One Identity, One Community, this program is expected to build unity, improve capacity building, provide insight about ASEAN’s identity and integration, as well as improve participants’ understanding of the Indonesian government’s policy. As an added bonus, this program is also expected to provide the participants with knowledge about Indonesia’s political and economic system as well as its socio-cultural condition.

Besides the training on matters related to ASEAN and other diplomatic skills, while attending the program, the participants will also make several visits to some of Indonesia’s high institutions such as the Indonesian Parliament (DPR RI), National Election Commission, JCLEC in Semarang, as well as conduct a dialogue at the Centre for Southeast Asia Social Studies, CESASS at Gajah Mada University and a discussion with the heads of the forum for religious brotherhood (Forum Persaudaraan Umat Beragama, FPUB) in Yogyakarta.

Source:http://www.isria.com/pages/28_July_2010_58.php