The ASEAN Regional Forum’s Senior Officials meeting was held in Phnom Penh on May 26 to prepare for the 19th ARF Ministerial meeting on July 13 in Cambodia.

The meeting was for countries to exchange their views on regional and international issues, according to Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary of State at Cambodia ’s Foreign Ministry.
During the meeting, the officials discussed reports on confidence building measures and preventive diplomacy; disaster relief; maritime security; the non-proliferation of weapons and disarmament; counter-terrorism; transnational crime and the ARF’s 2012 disaster relief exercise.

They also discussed several ARF initiatives including; the ARF’s action plan on maritime security and others relating to the non-proliferation of weapons and disarmament; cooperation to ensure the security of information internationally; establishing an ARF multi-national information sharing centre; a system to monitor diseases and workshops on security in space and seismic monitoring.

The forum was attended by senior officials from all 10 ASEAN member countries, as well as China, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.-VNA