ASEAN summit ends with reaffirmed commitment to community by 2015

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries concluded a summit here on Thursday after reaffirming their commitment to building an ASEAN Community by the end of 2015.

"The establishment of ASEAN Community next year will be a milestone of ASEAN," Myanmar President U Thein Sein said at the closing ceremony of the two-day meeting.

"Myanmar will continue to be an active and responsible member of ASEAN in elevating ASEAN to the new height of ASEAN Community, which is politically cohesive, economically dynamic and socially responsible and responsive to the needs of our peoples and the region."

According to the ASEAN Secretariat, 80 percent of required measures for the ASEAN Community have been completed so far. The envisaged community will cover some 600 million people with a combined GDP of 2 trillion U.S. dollars.

The summit adopted a declaration for the ASEAN Community's post- 2015 vision, which will serve as the basis for a comprehensive roadmap for the regional bloc beyond 2015.

The ASEAN leaders also adopted a declaration on the ASEAN Secretariat in an effort to strengthen its institutional capacity, and a joint statement on climate change encouraging member states to announce their national targets before a key global climate change meeting in Paris late next year.

During the two-day summit, leaders of the 10 ASEAN members and their dialogue partners - China, South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Russia - exchanged views on regional issues.

"We also discussed increasing our cooperation in the priority areas - finance, environment and energy, education, global health issues and pandemic diseases, disaster management, regional economic integration and ASEAN connectivity," Thein Sein told a press conference.

Malaysia will take over the rotating ASEAN chairmanship next year.

"Myanmar is ready to render our full support to Malaysia," the Myanmar president said before handing over the gavel to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

ASEAN, established in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Enditem