ASEAN senior officials meet face to face in Phnom Penh
The ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) took place both in person and via videoconference on February 16 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Chair of the bloc in 2022.
At the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on February 16. (Source: VNA)
Phnom Penh (VNA)– The ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) took place both in person and viavideoconference on February 16 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Chair of the bloc in2022.
The event was attended by ASEANSOM leaders of the member states and the ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General for thePolitical - Security Community. The Vietnamese delegation is led by Ambassador Vu Ho, acting ASEAN SOM leader ofVietnam.
This is the firstface-to-face SOM after an over-one-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants reviewed thepreparations for and agenda of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting Retreat (AMMR),slated for February 16 - 17 in Phnom Penh. So far, foreign ministers of seven countrieshave confirmed their in-person participation in this event, while two others willattend via videoconference.
The senior officials alsodiscussed new developments relevant to the implementation of the Five-PointConsensus, adopted by ASEAN leaders in April 2021. Many countries held that thesuccessful implementation of this consensus is important to ASEAN’s support forMyanmar to stabilise the domestic situation and effectively take part in theASEAN cooperation and Community building.
Ambassador Vu Ho voiced Vietnam’ssupport for and affirmed its commitment to work closely with Cambodia - Chair ofASEAN in 2022 - and other member states to build ASEAN into a united, unanimous,strong, and resilient bloc, thus creating a prerequisite for realising the association’stargets.
He also proposed someinitiatives and orientations for lifting the ASEAN - Republic of Koreapartnership, currently coordinated by Vietnam.
At the two-day AMMR, foreign ministersare scheduled to discuss the bloc’s cooperation orientations for this year, COVID-19response, post-pandemic recovery efforts, the building of the ASEAN Communityand the Post-2025 ASEAN Vision, the implementation of outcomes of the 38th and 39th ASEAN Summits in Brunei last November, the bloc’s externalrelations, and some international and regional issues of shared concern./.
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At the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on February 16. (Source: VNA) 
