Remarks by H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai,

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand,

at the 16th Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Ministerial Meeting

1 May 2019, Doha, Qatar

Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First, I wish to join the distinguished speakers before me in expressing my appreciation to the Government and People of the State of Qatar for her kind and gracious hospitality accorded to myself and my delegation, as well as commend Qatar for her valuable contribution to the ACD, in the hosting today’s 16^th Ministerial Meeting.

Let me also take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences, on behalf of the people and Government of Thailand, to the Government and people of Sri Lanka. Such senseless actions are testimonial to the dire need for the ACD to step up our efforts to consolidate peace, prosperity and sustainability in the region and beyond.

As a person, 17 years old is young, vibrant and relatively strong.  As a community of nations, 17 years of gathering could be seen as coming of age, for having gone through thick and thin of differing situations - yet able to hang on together.  This could characterise ACD of today.  The question is how would ACD proceed from here.  Striding further with strength from diversity is largely anticipated, but to do so could not merely call for the will to make motion.  Some consolidated efforts are required from 34 countries to move forward this Pan-Asia Cooperation.  Here, I wish to offer 3 points;

First, is the sense of ownership.  Here, I commend Qatar for coming up with today’s 16^th Ministerial Meeting Theme “Partners in Progress”.  Partnership is, indeed, the underlying spirit of ACD, a concept of which all our cooperation platform is based on.  However, a pre-requisite to a closer partnership at all levels from States, private sectors, civil society and all other stakeholders is a shared “sense of ownership” among Member States. Here, I should like to emphasise that it is of utmost importance that every Member States is aware that each one of us is an important element of life for the greater Asia Cooperation Dialogue to function smoothly and efficiently as a macrocosm. On this point, I believe we do have room for improvement and that more needs to be done. We have together put in place a common vision, an agreed work plan and 6 pillars of cooperation, with Member States being Prime and co-Prime Movers. However, ACD’s pace has thus far neither advanced quickly enough nor made enough significant progress to make its visibility noticeable in today’s fast-evolving international order. Unless we promptly take action in a tangible manner, we might well miss the great opportunity to rise with the current “Asia Century”.

As to the progress of the two (2) pillars of cooperation which Thailand is prime-mover and co prime-mover, we are in the process of preparing 4 workshops in the next one year and a half on (1) Strengthening Health System, (2) Sufficiency Economy with the focus on Disability-Inclusive, (3) Food Security through Diversified Farming Practices, and (4) Energy Efficiency. We hope ACD members could participate in these events.

In this regard, I wish to call upon the Prime and Co-Prime Movers to be active and action-oriented in their chosen fields. I also urge all 34 Member States to organise activities, related to the 6 pillars of cooperation to enhance ACD’s visibility and attractiveness. This brings me to my second point; and that is: promoting greater awareness and visibility of the ACD.

To promote greater awareness and visibility of the ACD, both within ACD and at the global level, we need to be more focused to be able to draw strength from our diversity.  As Thailand is currently chairing ASEAN in 2019, and will be future APEC and BIMSTEC Chair in 2022, we would like to highlight the importance of “sustainability” where its main components include the 5 Ps, namely: people, partnerships, peace, prosperity, and planet. Because these five elements are ingrained in the spirit of ACD since its inception 17 years ago, I therefore urge my fellow ACD colleagues to consider following 2 acts:

    -       Act 1 : Form partnerships towards these goals;

            With regards to achieving sustainability we must promote partnerships for sustainability as there is no single policy approach that can be completely successful in itself. Partnerships should be approached on 2 levels, one between ACD Member States themselves and the other through creating synergies with other partners and regional organisations.  In this connection, Bahrain’s proposal could be referred to in the holding of meeting of Secretary-Generals of ACD with other regional cooperation frameworks and institutions in Asia, such as ASEAN, BIMSTEC, SAARC, CICA, ADB, AIIB sometime in the second half of this year.

    -       Act 2 : Take symbolic actions so ACD’s voice and efforts could be heard and felt;

            We should consider taking advantage of the upcoming meeting on the sidelines of the 74^th UNGA this September to raise ACD’s profile at the international fora. Thailand as the prime mover of the Promotion of Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development Pillar shall work with the Secretariat and other Member Countries to compile home-grown approaches to SDGs 2030 to showcase ACD’s best practices and emphasise our commitment towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for SDGs. And in this regards, ACD Member States could render support to the Secretariat in organising the ACD Day.

In this connection, Thailand plans to organise a Conference on “Regional Dimension in Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality: Sharing of Experiences and Nurturing Synergies across Regions” on the sidelines of the High Level Political Forum in Thailand during 9-19 July 2019. The Conference aims to share home-grown approaches, business models and best practices of the region in human development, which is the basis of all development dimensions. This event shall augment the work of ACD pillar on sustainable development and will be an excellent platform for all countries in the region to share experiences and exchange ideas on how to create synergies to support the SDG process.

Finally, on ACD organisational structure. 
I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm Thailand’s commitment to lend the hands to ACD in whichever way we can towards the strengthening of the ACD Secretariat to help drive forward our cooperation for more tangible results. To this end, Thailand will host the HLSG (High Level Study Group Meeting) meeting to discuss the organisational structure of the ACD on 18 - 19 July 2019. In which we look forward to an active participation of all Member States.

For us, the 34 countries of ACD from 6 different sub-regions with great diversities of the largest region in the world, and here I quote an ancient saying; “We could chose to think mundane and act normal, or trying at best not to.  For so trying not to, we would then know how amazing we could be.” Let’s do it.  Let’s show the world how amazing we could all be here in Asia.

Thank you.

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