ON BOARD PM’S SPECIAL PLANE, May 12: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday night described his four-nation Southeast Asia tour as “very successful” and said assurance of host governments to support Pakistan’s bid for full dialogue partnership status with Asean and agreement on early conclusion of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore were major achievements.

He was talking to the accompanying media team while flying back to Islamabad from Singapore at the end of his nine-day tour that took him to Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, and Singapore. The prime minister said the ultimate objective of attaining full dialogue partnership status with Asean was to have summit level relationship with the association.

He disclosed that all the four Asean countries had also endorsed Pakistan’s proposal to sign a declaration on cooperation in counter-terrorism with Asean.