JAKARTA, July 1: Pakistan's admission to the Asia-Pacific's only security forum on Friday is expected to ease tensions in South Asia over its rivalry with India, an official said on Thursday.

Pakistan will formally become the 24th member of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) when the grouping meets on Friday here. "This is very important for Pakistan because we have been trying to forge closer relations with Southeast Asian nations, and this will facilitate that," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP.

Acceptance into ARF would act as a catalyst to promoting peace in South Asia, Mr Khan said. Pakistan was interested in seeing peace and stability in the region because what happened in South Asia had a direct and indirect effect on Southeast Asia, he added.

ARF membership would also give Pakistan an opportunity to participate and deliberate on issues relating to peace and security, confidence-building and preventive diplomacy, the spokesman said.

"And this is good for Pakistan from a political point of view," he said. He said joining the ARF would also have a positive impact on country's industry, agriculture, trade and many other sectors "because we can benefit from the synergy that we have seen in Asean and beyond that a new synergy that is developing between Asean and other important countries."

Asked if the entry into ARF would lessen the tension between India and Pakistan, he said: "For that we have started a dialogue this week when the two foreign secretaries met in New Delhi."

The foreign secretaries discussed peace and security and Kashmir and there were other six agenda items which we hoped to discuss in the near future, he added. The current participants in the ARF are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Thailand, United States and Vietnam. -AFP/APP