Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will lead the Malaysian delegation to the 28th and 29th Asean Summits from Sept 6 to 8 in Vientiane, Laos.
This will be the first Asean Summit held after the establishment of the Asean Community on Dec 31, 2015 and after the adoption of the Asean 2025; Forging Ahead Together (Asean Vision 2025), both of which were concluded during Malaysia's chairpersonship.
Malaysia's director-general to the Asean Malaysia National Secretariat, Jojie Samuel, said given that this marks the inaugural year of Asean Community, Laos' chairmanship theme of 'Turning Vision Into Reality for a Dynamic Asean Community' is timely and appropriate as Asean strives to turn its aspirations and vision into reality.
"In addition to the Asean Summits, the prime minister together with other Asean leaders will also attend the Asean Plus Three, East Asia Summit and other Asean + 1 Summit with dialogue partners, which include the United States, China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea and the United Nations," he told Bernama in Vientiane today.
Samuel said Najib's programme will kick off tomorrow with the opening ceremony of the 28th and 29th Asean Summits.
"During the opening ceremony, the leaders are expected to witness the launch of the 'Visit Asean@50 campaign logo. The logo will be used in 2017, as part of the visit Asean@50: Golden Celebration campaign," he said.
The visit Asean@50: Golden Celebration campaign will be held to promote the twin objectives of commemorating the 50th anniversary of Asean, and embracing the Asean region as a single and united tourism destination.
"The event will be followed by the convening of the 28th Asean Summit or the plenary session. Taking into account that this will be the first Asean Summit after the summit in Kuala Lumpur, and given the importance of realising Vision 2025, the agenda of the plenary session is mainly to discuss the progress of the implementation of Asean 2025: Forging Ahead Together or also known as Asean Vision 2025, a roadmap for the region's continuous community building efforts," he said.
Collective prepardeness
Samuel said the leaders are also expected to sign the Asean Declaration on One Asean One Response: Asean Responding to Disasters as One within and outside the region, which aims to enhance Asean's collective prepardeness in dealing with disasters including coordination of efforts to disaster management; and enhance Asean's coordination among Asean member states in disaster management.
"The prime minister's programme on Sept 7 will begin with the 29th Asean Summit. This session will be conducted in retreat format whereby the leaders will have a closed session and will have frank and constructive discussions on external relations and Asean's future direction. The Asean leaders will also exchange views on regional and international issues," he added.
On the same day, the Asean + 1 Summit will also begin with the convening of the 19th Asean-China Summit to commemorate the 25th annivesary of the Asean-China Dialogue Relations.
The leaders are also expected to have constructive discussions on the Asean-China cooperation throughout its 25 years of cooperation and its future direction," he said.
Apart from the Asean-China Summit, the leaders are also expected to convene the following Asean+1 Summit: Asean-Japan Summit, the 18th Asean-South Korea Summit, and the second Asean-Australia Summit.
On Sept 8, the leaders will continue their Asean+1 Summit with the 14th Asean-India Summit followed by the fourth Asean-United States Summit.
"During the summit, the leaders will also issue a Joint Leaders Statement on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). A statement will be made to further demonstrate Asean's commitment in ensuring a swift conclusion of the RCEP negotiations," he added.
- Bernama
