Japan pledged to continue its strong support to ASEAN Community
building efforts and consider ASEAN’s needs beyond 2015 with a view of
ensuring competitiveness and promoting equitable development in the
bloc.
According to a press release of the ASEAN
Secretariat, ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on July 1 met with
Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the 46th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 46) and related meetings in
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.
At the meeting, FM Kishida
highlighted that in celebrating the 40th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan
Friendship and Cooperation this year, Japan will host an ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in December.
For his part,
Secretary-General Minh said the summit will issue a document outlining
the medium-to-long term vision of ASEAN-Japan Dialogue Relations and
provide future direction on how to sustain the ASEAN-Japan
multi-dimensional relations.
According to Minh, both sides
need to develop more concrete projects and activities to effectively
implement the ASEAN-Japan Plan of Action for the 2011-2015 period,
further support ASEAN integration, narrow development gap and build the
ASEAN Community by 2015.
The ASEAN secretary general
expressed his hope that Japan will extend the Japan-ASEAN
Integration Fund (JAIF) beyond 2013 to help ASEAN realise the ASEAN
Community by 2015.
In response, Minister Kishida said
Japan would look into the matter and extended his invitation to
Secretary General Minh to pay an official Japan visit later this
year.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA