ASEAN, Norway work for stronger cooperation

ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on August 8 received Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Morten Hoglund, who hailed the bloc’s efforts in finalising the Joint Statement of ASEAN-Norway Partnership.
ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on August 8 received NorwegianDeputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Morten Hoglund, who hailed the bloc’sefforts in finalising the Joint Statement of ASEAN-Norway Partnership.

Theymet on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting inMyanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw, during which they shared issues of mutualconcerns, especially the strengthening of effective cooperation betweenthe regional grouping and Norway, according to a press release.

DeputyMinister Hoglund said Norway is keen to promote bilateral stablerelations in politics, security, navigation, connectivity and narrowingthe development gaps by making full use of the Norwegian ASEAN RegionalInitiatives Fund (NARIF).

Secretary-General Minh briefed him onthe important objectives that need to be achieved to reach the goal ofASEAN Community by 2015.

He added that the ASEAN Secretariatlooks forward to working closely with Norway for bilateral strongcooperation, particularly in food security, agriculture, and finance.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN groups Brunei,Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA

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