• to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern; and,
• to make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

There are currently 27 participants in the ARF composed of the  ten ASEAN  Member Countries, the ten dialogue partners of ASEAN, Mongolia, Pakistan, DPRK, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the newest member to join the 14th ARF in Manila .

The ARF chaired by the current ASEAN Chair meets annually at the Foreign Ministers level and coincides with the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. In between the Ministers meeting, ARF inter-sessional activities are conducted.  ARF activities cover traditional and non-traditional security concerns, including non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, disaster relief, pandemics and maritime security.  This inter-sessional year in ARF has seen many activities between Track I and Track II and between other Regional and Security Organizations.

The Philippines and the Republic of Korea co-hosted the Second Meeting of the ARF Experts and Eminent Persons in Manila on 5-6 February 2007. The theme of the meeting was on “Multilateral Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia” with the aim of exploring possible methods of enhancing regional security cooperation in Northeast Asia. The Philippines will host the ARF Seminar on the Law of the Sea Convention on 5-7 December 2007.

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) OF THE FRIENDS OF THE ARF CHAIR

At the 12th ARF in Vientiane, Laos in 2005, the Ministers agreed to establish the “Friends of the Chair” and welcomed the Philippines offer to draft the Terms of Reference (TOR) for this concept. The Friends of the ARF Chair (FOC) is to assist the ARF Chair in the latter’s role, in accordance with the principles enshrined in the adopted paper on the Enhanced Role of the ARF Chair. ARF Member Countries recognize that the concept of the enhanced role of the ARF Chair is still in itself evolving.  The FOC is an ad-hoc group, constituted for a specific task by the ARF Chair as and when the situation warrants, including instances where emergencies and crisis situations arise which have the likelihood of disturbing regional peace and stability.

The Friends of the Chair is a troika composed of the following: (a) Foreign Minister of the incoming ARF chairing country; (b) the Foreign Minister of the non-ASEAN ARF Country; and, (c) the Foreign Minister of the immediate past ARF chairing country.

The TOR of the Friends of the ARF Chair will be adopted at the 14th ARF in Manila on 02 August 2007. Regional social, economic, political and security horizons already call for stronger dialogue and cooperation.  The ARF remains to be the preeminent Asia-Pacific body for security dialogue.