The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said on Wednesday Nigeria would promote cultural relations with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to improve people-to-people interactions among parties.
Onyeama stated this at the opening of the ASEAN Film Festival to mark the 51st anniversary of the regional group’s establishment.
The film festival was organized on Wednesday by ASEAN Committee in Abuja (ACA).
Onyeama said the level of economic ties between Nigeria and ASEAN member countries had improved but the country had “to do a bit more to attract more people from ASEAN countries.”
“In the nearest future, we want to increase our cooperation moving beyond trade and economic relations to cultural ties. Our cultural industries need to engage more with them.
“We are having more joint commissions and what we can do is expand the joint commission we have and add representatives of culture industries to take part and that will probably be the building block of our cultural engagements,” the minister said.