简体中文
Senior officials of Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) and Australia reaffirmed their shared commitment to further strengthening their comprehensive partnership in the recently-held fourth ASEAN-Australia Joint Cooperation Committee (AAJCC) Meeting here, ASEAN-Australia Commemorative Summit slated to be held next month in Myanmar.
The ASEAN-Australia Commemorative Summit was planned to be held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, to mark the 40th anniversary of ASEAN- Australia Dialogue Relations, seeking opportunities to elevate mature ties between the two economies to a higher level, a statement released by the ASEAN Secretariat said here on Monday.
"2014 is a banner year for ASEAN-Australia relations even as we hold this AAJCC on the 40th Anniversary of the establishment of our relations. Indeed, a number of activities have been undertaken to mark the long and mutually beneficial friendship," a co-chair of AAJC, Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, the Philippines' Permanent Representative to ASEAN said in her remarks to address the meeting held in ASEAN Secretariat on Sept. 25.
Australia, which established its formal ties with ASEAN in 1974, is ASEAN's oldest dialogue partner.
"2014 is also the year we completed the successor document to our Plan of Action which was adopted by our Ministers at the Post Ministerial Conference with Australia in August in Nay Pyi Taw," she added.
The AAJCC agreed that a statement to be released after the Commemorative Summit will serve as an important guide in charting the future directions of ASEAN-Australia Dialogue Relations in all areas of cooperative partnership.
The upcoming ASEAN-Australia Commemorative Summit would be chaired by Myanmar President and incumbent chair of ASEAN U Thein Sein, scheduled to be attended by all ASEAN leaders and the prime minister of Australia, the statement said.
The AAJCC exchanged views on the goals for the next five years to further strengthen ASEAN-Australia relations, including the effective implementation of the newly-adopted Plan of Action (POA) in the Joint Declaration on ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Partnership (2015-2019).
The POA covers a range of ASEAN-Australia cooperative endeavors in political and security, economic, trade and investment, socio- cultural, people-to-people exchanges, tourism, development cooperation and education issues.
Simon Merrifield, Australia's first resident Ambassador to ASEAN said that Australia will continue to support ASEAN's community building efforts and its Post-2015 Vision.
The AAJC co-chair added that Australia will continue to be an active partner of ASEAN in various ASEAN-led mechanisms like the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus).
"ASEAN is our number two trading partner after China. To ASEAN, Australia is the sixth largest export destination," Merrifield said in the event.
Two-way trade between ASEAN and Australia stood at 92.3 billion U.S. dollars as of last year, or double than it was a decade ago.
