Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed has proposed for the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) to focus on energy and food security.

Addressing the 10th Asia Cooperation Dialogue meeting held in Kuwait from October 9-11, Ahamad said the ACD must have a bearing on the global discourse on these issues, particularly since both energy and food security are fundamental to efforts at sustained economic development.

“We have amongst us here the world’s most important energy producers and consumers. The steep rise in fuel and food prices, volatility in commodity prices and extreme climatic occurrences threaten various development schemes. ACD can be a useful forum to develop cooperative mechanisms to address such issues,” he said.

Ahamed also said ACD member countries should recourse to joint ventures in greater numbers to sustain long-term engagement.

“I would like to mention here the Indian private sector’s contribution to the economic growth in many of the SAARC, ASEAN and GCC countries in Asia,” he said.

Ahamed also said India supports both dimensions of the ACD, namely ‘dialogue’ and ‘projects’.

“The uniqueness of the ACD is its diverse membership, reflected in the multiple areas identified for project cooperation. India strongly endorses the ACD approach of exploring complementarities amongst its members and finding common opportunities for cooperation and development,” Ahamed said.

“As we look back at 10 years of cooperation as ACD member states, we would think that ACD is well established as a ‘dialogue’ forum. We, perhaps, need to give further momentum to the ‘project’ dimension of ACD for more constructive engagements and partnerships,” Ahamed added.

He also suggested that each of the prime movers consider periodically circulating to all the member countries outcome information on the initiatives undertaken.

“We could identify points of contact in the ministries for foreign affairs for dissemination of such information. This would facilitate better coordination amongst member states from the working-level upward,” he added.

Ahamed also said ACD member countries together constitute the biggest aggregate of natural resources in the world.

“However, there are many ACD members who require our assistance in terms of technology and know-how. We need to cooperate further in this regard,” he said.

As co-prime mover in the field of culture, India has proposed to host the 2nd Senior Officials Meeting on Cultural Cooperation under the ACD on January 17-18, 2012.