During 8 - 9 April 2010, Mr. Kasit Piromya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, as the representative of Prime Minister of Thailand attended the 16th ASEAN Summit at the National Convention Center, Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The summary of the meeting as follows:
1. The ASEAN Heads of State/Government reaffirmed their strong commitments to speed up the effective implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community by 2015 through concrete measures and activities. They also had extensive, open and fruitful discussions on various issues under the theme “Towards the ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action” including the promotion of ASEAN’s role in regional architecture and the strengthening of cooperation in deepening regional integration and in addressing global challenges with a view to building a resilient, dynamic and sustained ASEAN Community.
2. During the meeting, apart from joining the ASEAN Heads of State/Government to call on H.E. Mr. Nguyen Minh Triet, the President of Vietnam, Foreign Minister Kasit also had a bilateral meeting with Mr. George Yeo, Singaporean Foreign Minister. Both sides exchanged views on the progress of ASEAN on regional architecture and how to further improve and strengthen the ASEAN cooperation with the United States of America and the Russian Federation.
3. Foreign Minister Kasit also took the opportunity to explain the unrest situation in Bangkok and offered apologies for the Prime Minister of Thailand who was not be able to attend the meeting. However, Foreign Minister Kasit reaffirmed Thailand’s strong commitment to cooperate with ASEAN and full support for the ASEAN Chairmanship of Vietnam. The ASEAN leaders not only showed understanding about the situation in Thailand and the Thai government’s measures in dealing with the demonstration, but also wished the Thai Prime Minister success in resolving the problems.
4. Foreign Minister Kasit joined other ASEAN Foreign Ministers at the signing ceremony of the Protocol to the ASEAN Charter on Dispute Settlement (DSM). He also attended the inaugural ceremony of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC), which will push forward ASEAN to be the rule-based and people-centered organization.
5. Foreign Minister Kasit shared his view with the meeting that in order to strengthen ASEAN, more attention should be paid to the issues of good governance, fair distribution of income and mutual assistance among ASEAN members. In addition, he emphasized that the enhancement of cooperation with dialogue partners should not solely focus on economic cooperation, but cover political and security dimension as well, especially the peace making.
6. The meeting agreed that appropriate modalities are needed for the deepening engagement between ASEAN, the United States and Russia. On this issue, Foreign Minister Kasit opined that if the ASEAN members saw the necessity to include both countries as dialogue partners, they should invite both countries without awaiting their expressed intention.
7. The meeting acknowledged the initial report prepared by the High Level Task Force on the ASEAN Connectivity and emphasized that the drafting of Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity was important to maintain the leading role of ASEAN in the region. Therefore, the High Level Task Force was urged to accelerate the Master Plan so that it could be submitted to the 17th ASEAN Summit in October this year. Several countries saw that the survey result of land connectivity and the area surrounding route number 9 from Mudahan-Savannakhet-Hui-Danang of ASEAN minister in January 2010 initiated by Thailand could be the good starting point.
8. Foreign Minister Kasit elaborated on the Thai government’s policies which emphasize the creative economy, human resource development, green economy, job creation and welfare provision for the people. At the regional level, he recommended that ASEAN should further promote intra-regional trade in order to depend on itself in the long term.
9. The meeting endorsed the exchange between Indonesia and Brunei in their turns for the ASEAN Chairmanship. As a result, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei will assume the ASEAN Chair in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. The meeting also agreed to convene special session of the ASEAN-India Summit in 2012, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the relation between both sides and tasked relevant ASEAN Ministers and Senior Officials to look into the issues and make recommendations.
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