On 15 December 2008, Dr. Mun Patanotai, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, in his capacity as Special Envoy of the Royal Thai Government, chaired the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The main objectives of this special meeting were (1) to continue the discussion of the Foreign Ministers and representatives from ASEAN Member States concerning the rescheduling of the 14th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, which, yesterday (14 December), the ASEAN Member States had a tentative agreement that the Summit would be held in Thailand by the end of February next year and (2) to have a preliminary discussion on how ASEAN Member States and the ASEAN Secretariat should implement the various provisions set forth in the ASEAN Charter.
On the rescheduling issue, the Meeting fixed the new dates of the 14th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits on 24-26 February 2008.
Concerning the implementation of the provisions in the ASEAN Charter, the Meeting discussed extensively on details and technical aspects of the operationalisation of new ASEAN organs and mechanisms to be established and strengthened by the Charter and agreed on the following points.
Firstly, on the issue of the operationlisation of the ASEAN Community Councils, the Meeting assigned the Senior Officials of ASEAN Member States to look into the matter of who in each ASEAN Member State should be their representatives in the three ASEAN Community Councils, comprising the ASEAN Political-Security Council, ASEAN Economic Council and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Council, and report to the Foreign Ministers during the rescheduled ASEAN Summit.
Secondly, on the issue of the restructuring of the ASEAN Secretariat as required by the ASEAN Charter, the Meeting agreed to (1) establish a new office of macro-economic monitoring and surveillance, whose function was to help the Finance Ministers of ASEAN Member States monitor the economic issues in ASEAN; (2) endorse the appointment by the ASEAN Secretary-General of two new openly-recruited Deputies Secretary-General of ASEAN, one to be in charge of an economic matter and one to be in charge of the internal management of the ASEAN Secretariat and (3) endorse in principle changes in the way the budget of the ASEAN Secretariat was calculated and approved in order to enable the Secretariat to have sufficient funds to implement its expanding mandates, in particular after the entry into force of the ASEAN Charter.
On the issue concerning the establishment of the ASEAN Human Rights Body, the Meeting was reported on the result of High Level Panel on an ASEAN Human Rights Body (HLP on AHRB), whose duty was to draft the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Human Rights Body. The HLP on AHRB had entered into the final stage of its work, with a nearly completion of a first draft of the ToR, which would be submitted to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting during their next meeting.
With the enter into force of the ASEAN Charter, today’s meeting of the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN Member States served as the first meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC). Under the ASEAN Charter, the ACC, which shall meet at least twice a year, is responsible, among other things, for coordinating the implementation of agreements and decisions of the ASEAN Summit and for coordinating with the ASEAN Community Councils to enhance policy coherence, efficiency and cooperation among them.
Prime Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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