Singapore takes over ASEAN Chairmanship from Philippines

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will deliver an ASEAN lecture next Tuesday to kick off Singapore's tenure as the new ASEAN Chair.



This handover to Singapore was made official at the close of the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Manila on Thursday.



Singapore said that as Chair, its priority will be the three Cs – Charter, Community and Challenges.



Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo formally handed over the Chairmanship of ASEAN to his Singapore counterpart at the closing ceremony of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.



Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said: "I remember telling Bert a year ago – 'You have to cook the dishes in your kitchen, then when it comes to our turn, we will serve the dishes and no one mistakes the waiter for the chef'."



Light moments aside, the new Chair knows there is a lot of serious work to be done, which includes a possible review of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).



Mr Yeo said Singapore intends to re-look at ARF's mechanism to ensure better follow-up action.



The November ASEAN Summit in Singapore will also see the leaders endorse three important matters – the ASEAN Charter, the ASEAN's blueprint to forge an economic community by 2015, and a declaration on tackling climate change and global warming.



Mr Yeo said: "At the end of this year, there will be an important meeting of the United Nations in Bali on climate change and leading up to this, climate change will be one of the topic items on the agenda at the ASEAN Summit, the ASEAN Plus Three Summit, the East and the APEC Summit.



"So it was good that at the ARF meeting this morning, there was complete solidarity on this point to confront the problem, which is our collective problem."



Mr Yeo added that the focus of ASEAN's 40th anniversary celebrations, which will be observed in all the ten member countries, will be on young people.



He said: "They may not be quite sure who are all the members of ASEAN, but they know generally that it is something good, something which brings the region together, reduces conflict and creates cooperation.



"They might not be sure how much cooperation there is, they might not know how much it impacts their daily lives. All that we do, boils down to security, making this a safer world for each of us, and about economic development, namely investments, jobs and better lives for people."



And Singapore hopes this cooperation will allow ASEAN to meet the challenges ahead, to become One ASEAN at the heart of a dynamic Asia.





Source: Channel NewsAsia