ASEAN+10 Meeting Opens in BangkokThe Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ten dialogue partners kicked off their meeting (ASEAN+10) Friday morning in Bangkok.During their one-day meeting, foreign ministers or representatives of ASEAN and the ten dialogue partners are expected to exchange views about issues affecting the regional security environment and social, political development. They will discuss economic recovery, financial issues, social safety nets, and high-level cooperation to quicken ASEAN integration process including implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA), Human Resource Development (HRD), Mekong Sub-region Development, among others. They will also talk about international political and economic issues, including recent developments on environment protection, transnational crime, especially trafficking in women and children and drug trafficking and the Millennium Summit to be held in New York on September 6, the largest-ever gathering of 188 U.N. member states. ASEAN+10 meeting, regarded as part of the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC), followed the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which was held here Thursday between ASEAN, its 10 dialogue partners and Papua New Guinea, Mongolia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the newest participant of ARF. ASEAN dialogue partners now comprise Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. After the meeting, ASEAN will then hold separate sessions with each of the dialogue partners (ASEAN+1) on July 28 and 29 to examine the specific issues existing between them. |
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