Addresses to Civil Society, Youth, AIPA Representatives and the Press at the 20th ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh.

Your Majesty the Sultan, Esteemed ASEAN Leaders,
Dear Representatives of ASEAN Civil Society Organizations,
Excellencies, Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Guests!

I am extremely delighted and honored to chair this important meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with Representatives of ASEAN Civil Society Organizations. I would like to extend my warmest welcome to all representatives of ASEAN Civil Society Organizations who have gathered today in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Kingdom of Cambodia to discuss our common objective- that is the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015 by focusing on the theme “Gender and Development in ASEAN”.

Indeed, civil society organizations have become an integral and indispensable part of the daily life of a modern democratic society. In most of our countries, civil society organizations have been working very actively in various fields, including humanitarian assistance, development, freedom of expression, and advocacy. This role is increasing steadily along with social progress made by our respective countries. For this reason, the ASEAN leaders consider that dialogue with and constructive participation of civil society organizations, focusing on “People-Centered” and “People Oriented” approaches, have become indispensable to the process of ASEAN Community building. For that reason I would like to underline that ASEAN expects the civil society organizations to observe neutrality and genuine professionalism in their activities. Civil society organizations should be free from political agenda to become an efficient partner of the government and to serve the community interests both at the level of each Member State and at the level of the whole ASEAN community.

In this sense, the dialogue between ASEAN’s leaders and representatives of civil society organizations is a great opportunity for interaction and strengthening constructive relations between ASEAN and the civil society. Along with this short introduction, I would like to open the floor for discussion. First of all I would like to call upon Mrs. Hoy Sechivanny, the representative of ASEAN civil society organizations to take the floor.

I would like to thank the representative of ASEAN civil society organizations for the comprehensive intervention reflecting the outcome of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/People Forum 2012 under the topic “We the People of ASEAN join hand in hand to build an ASEAN Community” held on 28-30 March 2012 in Phnom Penh capital, which provides good and important recommendations for ASEAN’s leaders to consider for improving the quality of life of ASEAN people, especially those recommendations related to the protection of women and the promotion of their roles and participation in development. These issues are of significant importance and have received a lot of attention from the governments of ASEAN Member States, as being important subjects in the agenda for ASEAN Community building. Next, I would like to call upon the ASEAN Leaders to provide comments:

If there is no more comment or recommendation I would like to wrap up our discussion as follows:

Leaders of ASEAN give great importance to the dialogue and discussion with representatives of the ASEAN civil society organizations, which are important partners in a wide range of areas of national development and in our efforts to realize an ASEAN Community living in peace, prosperity and harmony. We, the Leaders of ASEAN are encouraged by the Joint Statement made by the representative of the ASEAN civil society organizations which provided concrete and constructive recommendations focusing on the prevention of violence and all forms of discrimination against women as well as the promotion of women’s role and leadership in national development, including the provision of better opportunity to female students to access education and attain personal development in order to participate in politics and social work. Moreover, we highly appreciate the proposal to establish a mechanism aimed at preventing all forms of abuse against female migrant workers both within and outside their respective countries. Though appropriate responses to these recommendations we will be able to realize a people-centered ASEAN community in accordance with the theme “ASEAN: One Community-One Destiny”.

Once again, on behalf of all Leaders of ASEAN I would like to highly commend the representatives of ASEAN civil society organizations for their active and constant support to ASEAN in the effort to realize the objectives to serve the best interests of our member  nations.

Finally, I would like to wish Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen good health and declare the meeting closed.

 

[B] Address at the Meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with Representatives of ASEAN Youth
Under the Theme of “Role of Youth in ASEAN Community Building”

Peace Building, Phnom Penh, 03rd April 2012
(16:00-16:45)

Your Majesty the Sultan, Esteemed ASEAN Leaders,
Dear Representatives of ASEAN Youth,
Excellencies, Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Guests!

I am extremely delighted and honored to chair this important meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with Representatives of ASEAN Youth. I would like to extend my warmest welcome to all representatives of ASEAN youth who gather today in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Kingdom of Cambodia to discuss our common objective- that is the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015.

Indeed, an important objective of the ASEAN Charter is transforming ASEAN into a “People-centered Community” in which youth will receive top priority attention. Without any doubt, the main rationale for developing a regional community which lives in peace, prosperity and harmony is for, first of all, securing the future of the youth because they are the young generation in the society, and their wellbeing determines the future of their respective families, communities and nations. At the same time, the youth are a powerful force, a resource and signify a huge potential for our nations. That is why the 12th ASEAN Summit has adopted the Cebu Declaration Towards One Caring and Sharing Community which encourages greater institutional collaboration in increasing awareness about the ASEAN particularly among the young people, and promotes the increased involvement of ASEAN youth and students in national and regional activities, allowing them the opportunity to participate in regional activities and make significant contributions towards the achievement of the ASEAN Community. Since 2009, we have arranged annual dialogues between ASEAN’s Leaders and representatives of ASEAN youth in order to allow the youth to make comments and provide their views, opinion and recommendations directly to leaders of ASEAN annually.

In this context, today’s meeting is another practical step toward promoting the role of youths and attracting their participation in regional community building process. With this short introductory remark, I would like to open the floor for discussion. First of all, I would like to call upon Mr. Sok Theavuth, the representative of ASEAN youth to make comments.

I would like to express my appreciation for the comprehensive remarks by the representative of ASEAN youth who provided good and important recommendations for leaders of ASEAN to consider and take action in order to strengthen the quality of human resources, especially for the youth as well as to foster the role of youth in building the ASEAN Community. Next, I would like to call upon leaders of ASEAN to make comments and recommendations.

If there are no more comments or recommendations I would like to wrap up our discussion as follows:

Leaders of ASEAN give great importance to promoting youths’ role and attracting their participation in the regional community building process. For this purpose, we organize dialogues such as this between ASEAN’s Leaders and ASEAN youth. We, the leaders of ASEAN are highly encouraged by the Joint Statement of the representative of ASEAN youth which laid out clear recommendations on the real need of promoting ASEAN awareness, strengthening the capacity and developing entrepreneurship and leadership of the youth as well as promoting mechanism for youth volunteers’ activities in order to strengthen ASEAN identity.

We, the leaders of ASEAN would like to accept these recommendations and task relevant ASEAN ministers to address the concerned issues and to cooperate with one another on the emerging priorities as identified in the discussion here and later on.

Once again, on behalf of all ASEAN’s leaders I would like express my high appreciation of the representatives of ASEAN youth for their active and constant support for the ASEAN in the efforts to realize its objectives which are of great benefits for the community of our nations.

Finally, I would like to wish Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen good health and declare the meeting closed.

 

[C] Address at the Meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with Representatives of AIPA

Peace Building, Phnom Penh, 03rd April 2012
(14:00-14:45)

Your Majesty the Sultan, Esteemed ASEAN Leaders,
Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen, Delegates of AIPA,
Distinguished Guests!

I am extremely delighted and honored to chair the 5th Meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with delegates of AIPA. I would like to extend my warmest welcome to all delegates of AIPA who are attending today’s meeting in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Kingdom of Cambodia, to help realize our common goal of the establishment of ASEAN Community by 2015.

Our today’s meeting coincides with the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of ASEAN. After more than four decades of development, ASEAN today has become a closely-integrated political and economic entity, an influential player in the region and an indispensable strategic partner of major countries and organizations in the world. ASEAN integration has proceeded well in accordance with the roadmap for realizing the ASEAN Community by 2015 and ASEAN is carrying out its activities based on a strong charter. Due to this foundation, members of ASEAN are able to maintain solidarity as well as strengthen and expand close cooperation with one another in achieving great progress on the three pillars of ASEAN integration process, i.e. the establishment of Political-security, Economic, and Socio-cultural Communities. In this context, we all recognize that all major achievements of ASEAN have been made possible by the active support of parliaments of its member countries.

However, along with the achievements and success made so far, ASEAN is still facing some difficulties and challenges that need to be addressed in order to transform itself into a “People-centered Community” in accordance with the theme of “ASEAN: One Community-One Destiny” which we selected for ASEAN in 2012. In this sense, the role and participation of AIPA in the process of ASEAN Community building is indispensable and becoming increasingly important in the current situation.

With these observations, I would like to open the floor for discussion. First of all, I would like to call for His Excellency Marzuki Alie, the President of AIPA to make comments.

I would like to express my thanks to His Excellency Marzuki Alie, president of AIPA, for his comprehensive remarks which covers all aspects and progresses made by ASEAN including the recognition of challenges ahead and joint commitment to address and overcome those problems. Next, I would like to call upon the Leaders of ASEAN to provide comments.

If there is no more comment or recommendation I would like to wrap up our discussion. The periodical annual meeting of ASEAN’s Leaders with delegates of AIPA is indeed very important for enhancing the contribution from the Parliaments of ASEAN member countries which represent the voice and political will of the people, to promoting the cooperation and regional integration as well as mobilizing the solidarity and determination to jointly address all the challenges in achieving an ASEAN Community living in peace, prosperity and harmony for all our people. We, the Leaders of ASEAN are indeed highly encouraged by the Joint Statement of AIPA, especially on the AIPA’s determination in narrowing development gaps within ASEAN as well as promoting the people-to-people connectivity and enhancing people-centered community in development, which responds rightly to the theme of “ASEAN: One Community-One Destiny”. 

Once again, on behalf of all leaders of ASEAN I would like to express my high appreciation to the AIPA for having always provided active support to ASEAN in its effort to realize its key objectives, which are of great benefit for our member nations.

Finally, I would like to wish Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen good health and declare the meeting closed.

 

[D] Main Points Reported at the Press Conference of the 20th ASEAN Summit

Phnom Penh, Peace Building, April 4, 2012
(12:00 – 12:30)

I would like to welcome all media representatives to this press conference. As you are already aware of, Cambodia has a great honor to host and chair the 20th ASEAN Summit on April 3-4, 2012 in this Peace Building.

The Chairman’s Statement and other documents related to the outcome of the Summit have been circulated to all of you. Therefore, I think I do not need to go into detail all of the substances again. Taking this opportunity, I highlight only main points as follows:

• As the Chair of the ASEAN in 2012, Cambodia has chosen the theme of “ASEAN: One Community, One Destiny” to joint determination and cooperation of the ASEAN people to work in chorus to build the ASEAN Community as a cohesive family, living in political, security, economic and socio-cultural harmony, and is rules-based, peaceful and economically strong.

• Based on the theme, we had good and fruitful discussions both in yesterday’s plenary session and today’s retreat session. Overall, the Summit put the spotlight on reviewing the progress that we have achieved and identifying challenges ahead to overcome in the implementation of the ASEAN Charter, the implementation of the three pillars of the Roadmap for the ASEAN Community (including ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community), and the implementation of the IAI Work Plan II (2009 – 2015) as well as the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity. In addition, ASEAN leaders also had discussions on some important issues related to stability and security in the region, enhancement of the ASEAN’s prestige and further drawing of attention from major partners to participate in ASEAN’s effort in realizing a regional community building by 2015.

• In the spirit of showing determination and concerted cooperation within the ASEAN in making ASEAN a great, cohesive, and harmonized family, Cambodia initiated the Declaration on “ASEAN: One Community, One Destiny”. Moreover, to make the “Phnom Penh Declaration” a comprehensive and an actual statement, as the Chair of the ASEAN, I requested the ASEAN leaders to consider and adopt “the Phnom Penh Agenda” which focuses on ways to address real challenges that ASEAN is currently facing and identify key measures which are the priorities for the realization of ASEAN by 2015.

• All ASEAN leaders, with great sense of responsibility, entered into detailed discussions on the two main documents and provided their full support and endorsed the two important documents. In addition, we reviewed and adopted the Declaration on Drug-Free ASEAN 2015. This will significantly contribute to enhancing the welfare of our people especially youths in the region.

• During the discussion, ASEAN leaders took note with satisfaction of the success and achievements in all sectors. At the same time, we also acknowledged that ASEAN is continuing to face with some challenges on its path toward the realization of the ASEAN Community by 2015. We strongly believe that the measures agreed and laid down in the framework of “the Phnom Penh Agenda” will become an effective means for addressing our major challenges, including (1) the need for reducing development gaps in the region, (2) the need for successful implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity by giving great importance to the issue of coordination to ensure consistency in the implementation of priority projects and mobilizing financing necessary to implement those priority projects, and (3) the need for promoting cooperation in other sectors such as the protection of the rights of migrant workers and the strengthening of disaster management and addressing its impacts so on and so forth.

• We also took note of other progresses which are critical important for ensuring the effective implementation of the ASEAN Charter and building a people-centered community including the establishment of legal instruments for interpretation of the ASEAN Charter and addressing legal issues, progress of works of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and strengthening and expanding ASEAN’s international relations with ASEAN dialogue partners and so on and so forth.

• In addition, we paid attention to some other important issues related to ASEAN’s stability and security, including the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, peace keeping cooperation, maritime cooperation, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) Plus as well as elimination and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons so on and so forth.

• In our discussion on regional and international issues, we took note of the positive changes, which have contributed to a better regional political environment, stability and security including the encouraged democratic development in Myanmar, good progress towards the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea (DOC), especially the positive steps which we have reached towards the formulation of a “Code of Conduct in the South China Sea”. During this discussion, we also reaffirmed our support for a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue in the Korean peninsula, especially calling for a resumption of the six-party talks as soon as possible.

• In the spirit of enhancing ASEAN’s prestige and drawing further attention from major partners to the effort of ASEAN Community building by 2015, we agreed on the Cambodia’s initiative of organizing “ASEAN Global Dialogue” in November this year. At the same time, we also adopted the concept paper on Global Movement of Moderates, and took note of the report by the Chair of ASEAN on the preparation for participating in the upcoming G-20 Summit in June, at the invitation extended by the Government of Mexico.

• During the 20th ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Leaders also had fruitful dialogues with the representatives of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), of ASEAN Civil Society, and of ASEAN Youths. We consider this process as an integral part of our effort to transform ASEAN into a people-centered community and people-oriented. In this sense, we highly appreciated the commitments expressed and constructive recommendations provided by the representatives of ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Assembly, of ASEAN Civil Society and of ASEAN Youths, towards building an ASEAN Community living in peace, stability, prosperity and harmony.

• Moreover, the 20th ASEAN Summit coincided with the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of ASEAN. To celebrate this anniversary, Cambodia, as the Chair of ASEAN, issued a Statement on the 45th Anniversary of the ASEAN in order to highlight major accomplishments of ASEAN over the past four decades. We were very pleased and noted with satisfaction the pride advancement of ASEAN since its founding, especially its active and influential role in regional and global affairs.

• According to the ASEAN Charter, the Royal Government and People of Cambodia will be honored to welcome ASEAN leaders again in the 21st ASEAN Summit and related Summits scheduled in November this year.

These are the main points I want to highlight to all of you. Next, we still have some more time, I would be happy to provide some more comments or clarifications on the questions that you may have.