Six more countries join amity, cooperation treaty in Southeast Asia

Representatives of ASEAN and the six new parties to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia at the signing ceremony in Phnom Penh on August 3 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Six more countries have taken part inthe Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in SoutheastAsia (TAC), raising this deal’s membership to 49.

Representatives from Denmark, Greece, theNetherlands, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates signed the instrument ofaccession to the TAC in the presence of ASEAN foreign ministers on August 3, onthe sidelines of the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM-55) in PhnomPenh, Cambodia.

In his remarks, Cambodian Deputy Prime Ministerand Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who also chaired the AMM-55, said it was hiscountry’s honour to host the signing ceremony.

Such a high number of parties shows theimportance of the TAC in terms of its fundamental objectives and principles ofpromoting friendly multilateral cooperation and peaceful co-existence, henoted, calling on all acceding parties to maketheir utmost efforts to deepen their friendly ties and mutually beneficial cooperationwith ASEAN as an organisation as well as with each individual ASEAN memberstate.

The TAC is a peace treaty signed in 1976 amongASEAN member states to establish a set of guidelines to govern inter-staterelations in the region, promote perpetual peace, everlasting amity andcooperation based on mutual respect, non-interference principle, and peacefulsettlement of disputes./.

VNA