The 228 th Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Committee in Ottawa (ACO) took place in Canada on September 12, presided over by its Chair, Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Le Sy Vuong Ha.

At the meeting, ambassadors to Canada from seven ASEAN countries – Vietnam , Indonesia , Thailand , the Philippines , Myanmar , Malaysia and Brunei – informed each other about recent ASEAN activities and discussed activities of ASEAN’s diplomatic representative offices in Canada , especially preparation for the 35 th anniversary of ASEAN-Canada relations next year.

The ambassadors also debated the promotion of ties between ASEAN’s diplomatic corps and local agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament, proposing a meeting between the ambassadors and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird.

Canada considers ASEAN an important partner and it is mulling the establishment of a development fund to support activities of the ASEAN community in the country.

The country’s government is considering exchanging views on future plans with ASEAN at the East Asian Summit (EAS), participating in the 3 rd Protocol Amending the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and completing the ASEAN-Canada Joint Declaration on Trade and Investment./.