The ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) opened in Hanoi on July 17 under the chairmanship of the Assistant to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of Vietnamese delegation, Pham Quang Vinh.
The officials discussed coordination within the bloc to deal with pressing regional and international issues.
The meeting aimed to prepare for the 43 rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-43), the post ministerial meetings including ASEAN+1 and ASEAN+3, the East Asia Ministerial Meeting and the 17 th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF-17) scheduled to take place in Hanoi from July 20-23.
During the two-day meeting, working programmes, agendas and documents on the AMM-43 and related meetings will be discussed and the third revised protocol draft of the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) which will pave the way for non-bloc partners to join the treaty will be finalised for submission to the AMM 43 for approval.
The meeting will also touch upon proposals to accelerate the building of an ASEAN community, promote cooperation and inner-bloc links, raise regional capacity to cope with emerging challenges and discuss ways to expand cooperation between ASEAN and its partners.
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