Xinhua2022:11:14.08:00
PHNOM PENH, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) — The 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits and related meetings ended in Cambodia on Sunday, after yielding fruitful results for further cooperation. Regional program for socio-economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During these four days, we held a comprehensive and productive discussion on how to proceed to strengthen ASEAN’s centrality,” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the summit’s closing ceremony.
He added that the value of the association’s members to their “external partners, particularly at a time when the world is confronted with a rapidly evolving, complex regional and international issue” has also been strengthened.
Hun Sen explained that a total of 70 final documents and declarations on the three pillars of ASEAN communities were adopted and signaled at the four-day summits, and various cooperation frameworks were approved with their dialogue partners.
To build the ASEAN community, he continued, the Summits adopted the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on the 55th Anniversary of Association and the ASEAN Leaders’ Vision Statement on ASEAN ACT: Addressing Challenges Together.
In addition, the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on the Post-2025 ASEAN Connectivity Agenda has been adopted, he added.
On Friday, the regional bloc leaders also agreed in principle to accept East Timor as the 11th member of ASEAN.
“I would like to emphasize that the centrality of the bloc is the main driving force for substantive dialogue and cooperation with our external partners through various ASEAN-led mechanisms,” said Hun Sen.
At the closing ceremony, Hun Sen handed over the ASEAN chairmanship to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
ASEAN currently includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Web Editor: Rosa Liu, Zhao Jian)