On 28 April 2017, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand attended the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the ASEAN Political-Security Community Meeting, and the ASEAN Coordinating Council during the 30th ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines.

 

During the meetings, the Foreign Minister discussed ASEAN Centrality and ASEAN Unity under the ASEAN Charter that also encourages a unified stance on various issues, a unified voice on mutual concerns, and relationship building with countries outside the ASEAN region. The Foreign Minister emphasized that ASEAN needs to look beyond ASEAN Vision 2025 to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, reduce poverty in each demographic by half by 2035, and to increase trade within ASEAN countries to account for half of all ASEAN trade.

 

Thailand, as ASEAN Coordinator on sustainable development reported the results of the High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue on Enhancing Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which the Foreign Minister and the Executive Secretary of ESCAP co-chaired on 31 March 2017. The meeting praised Thailand’s contributions and agreed that Thailand, as ASEAN Coordination for ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) relations, organize the 4th ASEAN-GCC Ministers’ Meeting in Thailand in 2017.

 

The meetings recognized the positive progress made in drafting a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea and expect that the process should be completed mid-year 2017. In this regard, Thailand emphasized that the Code of Conduct must make the South China Sea a sea of peace, stability, and sustainable development. The meeting also expressed concerns about the current situation in the Korean Peninsula and released a Foreign Ministers’ Statement calling for the de-escalation of tensions and that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to comply with its obligations arising from all relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions in order to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific Region.