On 14 April 2020, His Excellency General Prayut Chan-o-cha (Ret.), Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, attended the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit (APT) on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) via videoconference. The Summit was chaired by His Excellency Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam as the ASEAN Chair. Also attending were the Leaders from ASEAN Member States and Plus Three countries, namely the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, as well as the ASEAN Secretary-General and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Leaders updated information on COVID-19 situation and measures undertaken by each country and reaffirmed their commitments to collective cooperation in fighting against the COVID-19 outbreak in a timely and effective manner and mitigating economic impacts as well as preparing for future crises.

The Meeting proposed cooperation in public health through enhancing capacity building to respond to public health emergency, exchanging of information, experience and best practices in public health; strengthening research and development in medicine and vaccines; and setting up an APT reserve of essential medical supplies.

In social area, cooperation to provide support and assistance to nationals of the APT countries; minimisation of harmful effects of fake news; and utilisation of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) located in Thailand to ensure food security were emphasised. In economic area, the Meeting stressed the importance of keeping markets open and maintaining resilience of regional supply chains of essential goods, especially food, medicine and medical equipment; facilitation of essential movement of people to maintain economic dynamism; utilisation of digital technology, digital economy, e-commerce for MSMEs; implementation of financial stimulus measures and post-pandemic recovery plan. The Meeting also reaffirmed commitment to the readiness of the Chiang Mai Initiative Mulitlateralisation (CMIM) to enhance financial stability in the region. In this regard, the Plus Three Leaders emphasised the importance of signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) within this year in order to help liberalise trade and boost business confidence.

The Prime Minister of Thailand updated the Meeting on the current COVID-19 situation and measures undertaken by the Royal Thai Government. He proposed the establishment of the “COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund” by reprioritising the existing Cooperation Funds both in ASEAN and with the Plus Three countries to help provide test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. He also proposed the use of technology to improve regional public health system and strengthening ASEAN’s economic resilience by applying the sustainable development approach, citing the promotion of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) as the home-grown approach in Thailand.

The Leaders adopted the Joint Statement of the Special ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019, which demonstrated collective political will, identified measures discussed at the meeting and supported Thailand’s proposal to establish the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund.