Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongloun Sisoulith (C) delivers opening remarks to the event, Feb. 27, 2016.
(VOVworld) – The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat closed in Vientiane, Laos, on Saturday. The two-day meeting was the first in a series of ASEAN meetings that Laos will be hosting as Chair of ASEAN in 2016. It was also the first ASEAN ministerial-level meeting to be held since the establishment of the ASEAN Community where the Foreign Ministers discussed the implementation of the ASEAN Community vision and exchanged views on ASEAN’s external relations as well as regional and international issues.
They were unanimous in enhancing cooperation and connectivity in the three pillars: the Political-Security Community, the Economic Community and the Socio-Cultural Community.
The ministers also touched upon a string of regional and international issues of shared concerns such as the situations on the Korean Peninsula and in the East Sea, along with non-traditional challenges such as terrorism, cyber security, human trafficking, abnormal migration, climate change, natural disasters, and diseases.