Regional senior officials have reviewed final preparations for the 43rd ASEAN Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and related ministerial meetings between the bloc and its partners to take place in Hanoi from July 19-23.

The three-day ASEAN senior officials’ meeting (SOM) discussed and agreed on the draft programme, agendas and a list of documents to be approved at the meetings, Pham Quang Vinh, head of Vietnam’s SOM delegation, told reporters at the end of the meeting in Hanoi on July 18.

ASEAN ministerial meetings will take place on July 19-20, meetings between ASEAN and its partners on July 21-22, and the 17 th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on July 23.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will open the 43rd AMM on the morning of July 20. A closing ceremony will be held on July 23 right after the 17 th ARF meeting. Then, Deputy Prime Minister and ASEAN Chairman Pham Gia Khiem will host a news conference on the meetings’ outcomes.

Ministers are expected to discuss accelerating the implementation of the roadmap of building the Community and ASEAN Charter, the ASEAN connectivity and links, including efforts to narrow the development gap within the bloc.

They will focus their discussions on expanding and deepening relations between the bloc and its partners, strengthening and maintaining the ASEAN key role in the region, and enhancing cooperation in response to the emerging challenges of economic recovery and sustainable development, climate change, natural disasters, diseases, as well as measures to build trust, promote peace, stability and cooperation in the region.

Related ministerial meetings will be a decisive step for the success of summits to be held later this year, including the 17 th ASEAN Summit, ASEAN+3, East Asian Summit (EAS) and summits between ASEAN and partners – China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United Nations.

Ministers are expected to adopt plans of action for the new period with several partners.

Regarding documents, senior officials have basically completed draft documents to submit to the AMM and are continuing to work on the AMM joint communique, the ARF Chairman’s statement and a Chairman statement of related ministerial meetings and partners and ASEAN+3. They will also prepare the Hanoi action plan to carry out the ARF vision statement to 2020, and the third protocol amending the region’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).

Also on the same day, a meeting of the executive committee on Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) took place./.