Iran Press/Iran news: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the special gathering to mark the 52nd anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN in Tehran on Wednesday, called regional counties to put aside differences and come together.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in this ceremony addressed participants and envoys from ASEAN countries and said: "We continue to believe that through cooperation and constructive engagement we can build a better world," Iran Press reported.
He added: "My presence here today is a tribute to the accomplishment of our friends in the ASEAN community in achieving cooperation and in the same time a want to ask our friends and our neighbors in the region that there is nothing to prevent us to doing the same, nothing can prevent us from establishing cooperation among ourselves, nothing prevents us from joining together rather than working against another."
He added: "Others will never protect us, others never will provide our security, others will never provide us well-being, we need to have self-respect, if we want others to respect us, we need to start self-respecting ourselves."
Zarif said: "We never can be considered milking cows, milking cows never will be respected. we need to be partners; we need to be partners with each other to be respected as global partners."
Iranian foreign minister addressed Iran's neighbors in the region and said: "This is our call, this is Islamic republic of Iran's call to all its neighbors, lets come together, let put aside differences, all communities that come together have had differences, from Europe to Asia, it's not that the countries who come together that there are no differences, differences are the fact of life, but we come together because we believe that what's bind together is commonalities, our commonalities are much greater than our differences."
"The interest of our nation of our people always better served through cooperation and engagement, so while be salute our friends, brothers and sisters in the ASEAN, we call on our neighbors to emulate this very successful experiment and let to likewise," he added.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio-cultural integration among its members and other countries in Asia.
ASEAN also regularly engages other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
A major partner of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances and dialogue partners and is considered by many as a global powerhouse the central union for cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and a prominent and influential organization.
It is involved in numerous international affairs and hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world. The ASEAN Secretariat is located in Jakarta, Indonesia. 101/211/205
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