Senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Bagan, Myanmar on January 16, one day ahead the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat to seek to hasten the building of an ASEAN Community by 2015.

They also discussed the Post-2015 ASEAN Community Vision and adopted guidelines on the bloc’s external relations in the time to come.

Addressing the meeting, U Aung Lynn, Director-General of the ASEAN Affairs Department of the Myanmar Foreign Ministry said his country will make all-out effort together with other members to strengthen ASEAN’s image and speed up the Community building.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh is to attend the Retreat’s opening session from January 17.

This is the first time Myanmar assumed ASEAN Chair since it joined the bloc in 1997.

During its one-year Chairmanship, the country will host more than 240 meetings.

ASEAN groups Brunei , Cambodia , Indonesia , Laos , Malaysia , Myanmar , Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam.

(Source: VNA)