ASEAN officials meet on regional issues

Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held talks here on Monday as the ten nations bloc gears up for the community building by the end of the year.

Othman Hashim, secretary-general of Malaysia Foreign Ministry who chaired the discussions, said the officials discussed the follow-up actions of the ASEAN summit held in April, such as the Implementation of ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint; Follow-up to the Declaration on Strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and Reviewing the ASEAN Organs, etc..

The meeting also touched on regional issues such as the irregular migration the Southeast Asia, which has drawn international attention recently, he said.

ASEAN's dialogue partners will join the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday in the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan, South Korea) Senior Officials Meeting and East Asia Summit Senior Officials Meeting (EAS SOM) as well as the ASEAN Regional Forum Senior Officials Meeting.

Othman said the meetings are to prepare for the ministerial meetings to be held in Kuala Lumpur in August as well as the leaders' summit at the end of the year.

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