14th ASEAN Summit opened

The opening statement delivered by the host PM Abhisit Vejjajiva highlighted the importance of the Summit, the first one under a new ASEAN Charter, which, “together with the plans of action for the development of all three pillars of the ASEAN Community, serves as a blueprint for our common future.”

The 14^th Summit underlines new era of ASEAN with people at the heart of cooperation. Besides, there are three sub-themes, namely ‘Towards More Effective Community-Building’, ‘Enhancing Regional Resilience against Global Threats’, and ‘Reinforcing ASEAN Centrality in the Evolving Regional Architecture’.

The Thai PM emphasized that ASEAN is moving “in unison” and “in the same direction” towards our goal which is “not for the rich and the powerful, but for the people of our community”, “not in the number of countries we have but in the strength of our unity” and “not how old we are but how much we achieved in the past and will achieve in the future.”

Earlier, ASEAN leaders had some informal meetings and dialogues with the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), ASEAN youth and civil society representatives. The leaders stressed the role of two-way dialogue in making policies, realizing the Charter and building the ASEAN Community.

Attending those meetings, PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng emphasized the need to engage active and responsible involvement of social organizations and strata into consolidating solidarity and building the Community on the basis of goals and principles defined in the Charter.

Working with representatives of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, the leaders highly valued proposals from the business community in order to promote cooperation, investment and trade in the region, especially measures to mitigate negative impacts of the global financial crisis.

 By Xuân Hồng