Senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are gathering at meetings in Bangkok from May 28 to 31 to prepare for upcoming events of the bloc.

ASEAN senior officials pose for a photo at the meeting opened in Bangkok on May 28 (Photo: VNA)

Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Busaya Mathelin will chair the meetings, namely the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), the Joint Consultative Meeting, the ASEAN SOM Plus Three, the East Asia Summit SOM, and the 7th meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council’s Working Group on Timor Leste’s ASEAN membership application.

The meetings aim to prepare for the ASEAN Summit, the 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting Post-Ministerial Conferences, which are scheduled to take place in Bangkok in late June and late July.

Participants are set to discuss cooperation in the building of the ASEAN Community, especially advancing partnership for sustainability – the priority issue of Thailand’s ASEAN chairmanship this year.

They will also look into measures to enhance the bloc’s relations with partners and exchange views on important international and regional matters.

This time’s ASEAN SOM and related meetings show Thailand’s role in promoting peace and cooperation in the region to realise security, sustainable development and economic growth targets, as well as to achieve sustainable social security, thus helping to build a future-oriented and people-centred ASEAN Community where no one is left behind.

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

(Source: VNA)