On 2-3 June 2011, Canada will host the 8th ASEAN-Canada Dialogue at Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, Vancouver, which will be co-chaired by Mrs. Chitriya Pinthong, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and SOM Leader of Thailand, as Country Coordinator for ASEAN-Canada relations between 2009 and 2012. She will chair the meeting with Mr. Peter McGovern, Assistant Deputy Minister (Asia) and Chief Trade Commissioner, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada.
The ASEAN-Canada Dialogue is an annual meeting at the senior official level and a venue for the partners to discuss and exchange views on strategic issues ranging from political and security to economic affairs at the regional and global levels. The Meeting also provides an opportunity to review recent developments in both ASEAN and Canada, and to discuss ways to enhance cooperation between the respective partners.
In particular, the 8th ASEAN-Canada Dialogue will seek to ensure that the spirit of cooperation is turned into reality through the Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-Canada Enhanced Partnership 2010-2015. This meeting will also discuss potential activities to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN-Canada dialogue relations, which will take place in 2012.
Since the official establishment of relations between ASEAN and Canada in 1977, there have been 3 levels of meetings between ASEAN and Canada namely, the Post Ministerial Conference (PMC)+1 with Canada, the ASEAN-Canada Dialogue Meeting and the ASEAN-Canada Informal Coordinating Meeting (ICM). The 1st ASEAN-Canada Dialogue was held on 19 January 2004.
Thailand has recently played a particularly active role in the ASEAN-Canada Dialogue since assuming the role of Country Coordinator for ASEAN-Canada dialogue relations for 3 years (July 2009 — July 2011) at the PMC+1 session with Canada on 22 July 2011 in Phuket, Thailand. This PMC+1 session also adopted the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-Canada Enhanced Partnership, which served as the preliminary masterplan for future ASEAN-Canada cooperation.
Subsequently in July 2011, in Hanoi, Vietnam, the PMC+1 endorsed the Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-Canada Enhanced Partnership 2010-2015 as a roadmap to strengthen ASEAN-Canada partnership over the next 5 years and as a supplement for efforts to build an ASEAN Community by 2015. Canada has also displayed its strong commitment to promote peace and security in the region by acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th