H.E. Saleumxay KOMMASITH, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs chairs the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

 In the morning of 8 October 2024, H.E. Saleumxay KOMMASITH, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and ASEAN Chair for 2024 under the theme “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience,” chaired the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. ASEAN Foreign Ministers, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Foreign Minister of Timor-Leste and delegates were in attendance.

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting noted and highly valued the progress on the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the nine priorities of Lao PDR’s ASEAN Chairmanship so as to build a more connected and resilient ASEAN Community and to enable ASEAN to effectively and timely address various challenges and seize opportunities to bring about benefit to ASEAN peoples amidst complex geopolitical and geoeconomic changes. The Meeting was pleased with the progress in developing draft Strategic Plans to implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and encouraged the ASEAN bodies concerned finalise draft Strategic Plans for adoption together with the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 next year under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship. 

The Meeting also discussed and considered requests from countries outside the region to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC). In this regard, the Meeting agreed on the application of Hungary to accede to the TAC and tasking the ASEAN Secretariat to conduct assessment on the applications of Poland, Romania and Uruguay, and looked forward to welcoming Luxembourg, which is set to sign the Instrument of Accession to the TAC on the sidelines of the upcoming 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits. The Meeting also looked forward to the accession of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Spain, the United Mexican States and Hungary to the TAC.

The Meeting discussed ASEAN’s relations with External Partners and reaffirmed the importance of enhanced cooperation and ASEAN Centrality within the evolving regional architecture. In this connection, Lao PDR, as the country coordinator for ASEAN-Canada, expressed appreciation for the support in convening the ASEAN-Canada Special Summit on Enhancing ASEAN Connectivity and Resilience.

The Meeting concluded with the endorsement of three outcome documents that will be further presented to the ASEAN Leaders for consideration at the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits, namely: 1) ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on the Development of Strategic Plans to Implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, 2) ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific for the Future-Ready ASEAN and ASEAN-Centered Regional Architecture, and 3) ASEAN Leaders’ Review and Decisions on the Implementation of the Five-Point Consensus.