ASEAN Senior Officials Propose Further Economic, Security Integration

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, June 15, 2003

ASEAN Senior Officials Propose Further Economic, Security Integration

Economic and security issues were discussed in the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting, which ended Saturday after completing preparations for the upcoming ASEAN meetings.

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Economic and security issues were discussed in the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting, which ended Saturday after completing preparations for the upcoming ASEAN meetings.

Attendees agreed to further discuss the proposed ASEAN Economic Community(AEC), a strengthened framework to improve economic relations among ASEAN's members.

"Members agreed to take into account the different levels of economic development in the pursuit of the target," said M. C. Abad, head of public affairs of the ASEAN Secretariat.

Economic integration as a major topic of ASEAN was first talkedabout on Friday with attendees agreeing to boost a six-year work plan bridging the economic gap between the bloc's members.

"ASEAN has a lot of important things to do, and to reduce the economic gap is urgent," said Pola Singh Friday, assistant director of Initiative for ASEAN Integration Unit.

Indonesia side presented Saturday to the Senior Officials' Meeting their ideas of setting up an ASEAN Security Community (ASC), Abad told reporters, saying the senior officials agreed to convene a special session in late July or early August on the matter.

He said human rights issue remains in the meeting agenda and the senior officials met on Saturday afternoon with a non-governmental organization to exchange views.

"ASEAN supports the protection of human rights in the region," Abad said.

He announced the works of the Senior Officials' Meeting completed and "all the preparations have been done for the upcoming meetings."

The meetings are: the 36th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the10th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) and the 3rd Ministerial Meeting on Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), which will last from June 16 to June 20.

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