Thein Sein, who is ASEAN Chairperson, stressed the need for the grouping’s member states to continue the efforts that brought them great achievements over the past 47 years.
He said they should further promote the bloc’s core role in building regional security architecture, while fostering intra-bloc economic connectivity, narrowing the development gap, strengthening collaboration in poverty reduction, and responding efficiently to arising challenges.
The Vietnamese delegation to the event was led by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Pham Binh Minh.
After the opening ceremony, the foreign ministers gathered for the annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ).
In the afternoon, they are scheduled to have a meeting with the Inter-Governmental Committee on Human Rights, as well as hold a plenary session and a retreat.
The AMM-47 will be followed by a series of meetings with partners, including the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Plus One (PMC+1), the 15th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (ASEAN+3), the fourth East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (EAS FMM-4), and the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF-21) and related meetings from August 8-10.
