InfoQuest (July 31, 2019) -- During his welcome speech at the opening ceremony of the 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, Thai Prime Minster and Defense Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said that as the 2019 ASEAN President, Thailand is committed to building a people-centered community that leaves no one behind and is better prepared for the future. "Under the theme of 'Advancing Partnership for Sustainability'," he said, "we will build a sustainable and steadily growing community that is ready for changes and challenges by collaborating with overseas partners with a focus on people's benefits."
In the last 6 months, ASEAN has made piles of great achievements. It has promoted comprehensive sustainable development and adopted the vision statement on "Partnership for Sustainability" of the ASEAN leaders at the 34th ASEAN Summit.
In addition, the ASEAN leaders launched satellite warehouse under the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN (DELSA), made the ASEAN Center of Military Medicine (ACMM) to be an official organization, and adopted the Bangkok Declaration on combating marine debris which aims to marshal concerted efforts to reduce marine debris in the region.
Mr. Prayut stressed ASEAN must strengthen all-round cooperation with dialogue partners and countries beyond the region to achieve its goals. He referred to the 2019 G20 Summit that took place last June in Osaka, Japan, where Thailand as current ASEAN President presented the results of 34th ASEAN Summit that focused on creating cooperation in four key aspects. The first area of cooperation was utilization of financial technology, while the second was the reduction of development disparity between urban and rural areas. The third area of cooperation was preserving and restoring the environment and natural resources, while the fourth was the development of human capital.
"The meeting continued the guidelines and achievements of related meetings, including three fields. First, the mechanism where ASEAN plays a leading role was leveraged to boost cooperation between ASEAN and dialogue partners, promote sustainable development in the region and create benefits for people. 2. Second, the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity and relevant strategies were further carried forward to promote all-round connectivity. Third, regional security cooperation was carried out. Based on the principle of 3M (mutual trust, mutual benefit and mutual respect), countries were called to jointly realize mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual understanding of differences, mutual benefit and peaceful resolution of conflicts". said Mr. Prayut.
The prime minister concluded by saying that he hopes the meeting would strengthen consensus within the community, push for concrete results through cooperation, and establish friendly partnership with countries, international organizations, and regional organizations beyond to get ready for the 35th ASEAN Summit and related meetings to be held in November 2019.
Source: InfoQuest, by Tanit Tongnok / Nisarat / Rachada, translated by Xinhua Silk Road
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