The meeting of ASEAN senior officials in charge of economic, security and socio-cultural communities concluded on March 6 in Phnom Penh , agreeing on agendas and documents for the 20th ASEAN Summit and related Summits on April 3-4.

The ASEAN senior officials discussed and agreed to finalise the draft ASEAN Human Rights Declaration before the 21 st ASEAN Summit in November.

They also agreed to speed up the preparation of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the establishment of an ASEAN Institute for Peace and Recommendation by July.

On the issue of the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ), the officials agreed to arrange a statement on the protocol to the SEANWFZ treaty for their ASEAN foreign ministers to sign in April during the 20th ASEAN Summit.

They also prepared the Memorandum of Understanding between ASEAN and China on the SEANWFZ and arranged for the ASEAN-China foreign ministers to sign in July.

Moreover, they stressed that it is very important to invite foreign ministers of the powerful nuclear weapon states to sign the SEANWFZ protocol in July.

The officials also discussed the regional Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and noted that ASEAN should begin working with China in order to draft the Code of Conduct (CoC).

Besides these issues, they agreed to put forward the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on a Drug Free ASEAN 2015 for the ASEAN leaders to sign in April during the 20th ASEAN Summit.
On the application of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to become the 11th member of ASEAN, officials agreed to set up an ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group, in order to assess the impacts on ASEAN from Timor-Leste becoming a member state.

The three-day joint preparatory meeting was chaired by Soeung Rathchavy, Secretary of State at Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.-VNA