This was the first major event of Thailand’s year as the ASEAN Chair. As a routine, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat serves as a kick-start for the year of chairmanship of ASEAN.

leftcenterrightdel
ASEAN Senior Officers meet in Chiang Mai. 

Based on the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability,” Thailand proposed a number of priorities and initiatives to sustainably develop ASEAN in all aspects, serving as the foundation for ASEAN foreign ministers to discuss the central points and cooperation priorities of ASEAN in 2019 and exchange notes on issues of regional and global concerns.

In terms of ASEAN foreign affairs, the senior officials reviewed action plans with partners in 2019, including the organization of conferences at all levels, such as the ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit at the end of 2019 in the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Participants at the meeting agreed to firmly promote the central role of ASEAN and uphold the procedures and process of ASEAN in dealing with partners. They also discussed regional cooperation strategies and initiatives proposed recently.

Translated by Song Anh