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The Bureau has also hosted the Asia-Pacific Roundtable series
since its launch in 1987 to promote trust and confidence in the
Asia-Pacific region. As a Track Two forum, the APR brings
together think tanks, academics, media representatives and
senior government officials acting in their personal capacity to
engage in candid dialogue regarding the major security
challenges confronting the region. Over the past two decades,
the APR has gained a reputation as the premier Track Two forum
in the region, bringing together over 250 participants and
observers to its recent annual conferences.
The APR has consistently viewed security as comprehensive in
nature, encompassing critical threats to human well-being and
livelihood in the political, economic, social, environmental and
conventional security areas. The APR agenda therefore includes
such disparate topics as, among others, arms races,
globalisation, human rights, maritime security, transnational
crime and terrorism.
The APR has received the consistent and unwavering patronage of
successive Prime Ministers, Deputy Prime Ministers and Foreign
Ministers of Malaysia. Dato' Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi,
the present Prime Minister of Malaysia, and his predecessor, Tun
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have delivered the bulk of the keynote
addresses at the APR since its inception. This support from the
highest levels of leadership has added stature and substance to
the Roundtable process.
The APR is a project of the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and
International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS), with ISIS Malaysia as the
anchor institution for the convening the conference. Since 1993,
the convening of the APR has been made possible by the support
of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
The 21st Asia-Pacific Roundtable will be convened in June 2007. |
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