BANGKOK, 2 August 2015 – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn is scheduled to attend the 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and related meetings in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur this week from 3-6 August 2015.
The 48th AMM will be the last annual meeting at the ministerial level before the official arrival of ASEAN Community on 31 December 2015. It is therefore a crucial stage for them to discuss outcomes of the regional cooperation and finalize ASEAN’s post-2015 vision to facilitate a people-centred and public participatory achievement.
It is also a forum to discuss various agendas such as maintaining a leading role of ASEAN, developing the regional connectivity, dealing with non-traditional threats that emerge from the closer ties among member states.
Apart from the 48th AMM, Gen Tanasak is to take part in a series of related meetings with ASEAN dialogue partners such as China, Japan, South Korea.
He will join the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Meeting, ASEAN+1 Meeting, ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, East Asia Summit (EAS) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, as well as ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) with Japan and South Korea will be a sub-regional meeting he will attend.
Agendas of those meetings mainly focus on one-year followup on the progress of the meetings and mapping out of next-year operational plans to strengthen the efficiency of all ASEAN meetings.
As 2015 is the last year Thailand serves as coordinator of ASEAN-China relations, Gen Tanasak will meet with Chinese representatives to emphasize the roles of Thailand during the past three years before the country will change its role to a coordinator of ASEAN-EU relations this August.
Gen Tanasak will then exchange opinions with ARF foreign ministers in major issues of their common interest such as Superpowers Relations in ASEAN, situation in East Asia and the South China Sea.
