MANILA (Reuters) - It’s the stuff of phobic nightmares -- a long corridor with closed doors signposted with letters like ARF ISM CT TC or BIMP-EAGA.
But that’s reality at the annual ministerial meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a region where acronyms are widely used.
So much so that organizers of the meeting, being held this year in Manila, have handed out a guide on 87 of the most common acronyms.
Delegates and visitors are informed that ARF ISM CT TC is the ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-Sessional Meeting on Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime.
BIMP-EAGA is the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area.
The letter “A” has the most entries in the guide, with 40. “C” is a distant second with 11. There’s even one for “Z” -- ZOPFAN or Zone Of Peace, Freedom And Neutrality.
There is however no entry for ASEAN itself.
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