20 September 2013 — The Philippine Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa participated at a reception held at the Indonesian Ambassador’s Residence in Pretoria on September 09 to celebrate the 46th founding anniversary of ASEAN.
Representatives of South African government and business entities, and from the Missions of ASEAN dialogue partners in Pretoria attended the reception, along with officers and staff of the seven ASEAN Missions of the ASEAN Pretoria Committee (APC).
In his remarks at the start of the reception, Indonesian Ambassador and APC Chairman Sjahril Sabaruddin spoke of the continuing development and maturation of ASEAN, and the growing economies of its member-states.
In a response on behalf of the South African government, South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Deputy Director General Ambassador Anil Sooklal said that South Africa treasures its relationships with ASEAN member-states and that the country looks to ASEAN as a model of what it envisions its own regional groupings, such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU), should become.
After the formal part of the reception, the guests enjoyed food prepared by the ASEAN Missions, including pancit guisado, chicken adobo and ginataang bilo-bilo contributed by the Embassy. END
