Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan will lead a Bangladesh delegation to the meeting, marking the country's accession to the ASEAN-plus forum that has roped in most of world's big powers.

The 12th meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Vietnam in July last year welcomed and agreed to ASEAN's consensus on admission of Bangladesh as the 26th participant in the ARF.

The ARF came into being in 1994 drawing together 25 countries that have a bearing on security of the Asia-Pacific region.

It comprises the 10 ASEAN member-states--Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, 10 ASEAN dialogue partners--Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russia and the United States--one ASEAN observer (PNG) as well as the DPRK, Mongolia and Pakistan. East Timor was admitted into the ARF in 2005.

In a region with little history of security cooperation, the ASEAN Regional Forum is the principal forum for security dialogue in Asia. "The ARF complements the various bilateral alliances and dialogues which underpin the region's security architecture," says the statement of its objectives.

The ARF is premised on the idea - drawn from the ASEAN experience - that a process of dialogue can produce qualitative improvements in political relationships.

It provides a setting in which members can discuss current regional security issues and develop cooperative measures to enhance peace and security in the region.