PHNOM PENH, June 17: Asean’s decision to push for Pakistan’s inclusion in Asia-Pacific’s top security grouping, the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), will boost moves against terrorism and towards resolving the India-Pakistan dispute, officials said on Tuesday.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which set up the ARF a decade ago, decided at their meeting here to lift the forum’s moratorium on new members and push for Pakistan to become its 24th member.

Fearing the move could open the floodgates for membership, it was decided that other long-standing applicants — including East Timor, Iran and Sri Lanka — be considered on a case-by-case basis, officials said.—AFP