Chair’s Press Release ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting With The United Nations Secretary-General and The President of The 72nd Session of The UN General Assembly

23-Sep-2017

Source: ASEAN Secretariat News 

Chair’s Press Release ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting With The United Nations Secretary-General and The President of The 72nd Session of The UN General Assembly

New York, 23 September 2017 - ASEAN and the United Nations reaffirmed the importance of further strengthening the Comprehensive Partnership between ASEAN and the United Nations towards the fulfilment of ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Focusing on common goals and shared interests, the ASEAN-UN Ministerial Meeting was held at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Meeting was chaired by H.E. Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and Chairman of ASEAN 2017, and was attended by the United Nations Secretary-General, H.E. António Guterres, the President of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Miroslav Lajčák, the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN, Secretary-General of ASEAN, H.E. Le Luong Minh, and senior officials of the United Nations.

The Meeting took note of the Joint Report by the ASEAN and UN Secretariats on the ASEAN-UN Comprehensive Partnership for the period of September 2016 to August 2017 and welcomed the significant progress made across a broad range of activities under the first five-year Plan of Action (2016-2020) which was adopted in September 2016.

The Meeting agreed to institutionalize the annual Secretariat-to-Secretariat (S2S) Meetings in Jakarta and in New York to facilitate regular monitoring on the implementation of the comprehensive partnership between ASEAN and the UN.

The Meeting observed that cross-sectoral cooperation, including initiatives that foster a culture of prevention and leverage on complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, was among several areas where ASEAN-UN engagement could be further strengthened.

The Meeting noted the adoption of the first ASEAN-UN Action Plan on Environment and Climate Change (2017-2020) on 13 September 2017 in Brunei Darussalam following the adoption of the ASEAN Post 2015 Strategic Plan on Environment.

The Meeting also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest and concern. The Meeting acknowledged the importance of multilateralism and regionalism in meeting global challenges during discussions which covered counterterrorism and the prevention of violent extremism, regional security and migration, as well as the complementarities of the 2030 Agenda and the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

Both sides looked forward to the forthcoming Sixth ASEAN-UN Workshop – Fourth Regional Dialogue on ASEAN-UN Cooperation on Women, Peace and Security -The Role of Women in Preventing Violent Extremism in Malaysia and the 1st ASEAN – UN Training on the Law of the Sea, including UNCLOS, in Indonesia. The Meeting reaffirmed the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes in conformity with international law, including the UNCLOS.

The Meeting also looked forward to the 9th ASEAN-UN Summit which is scheduled to be held on 14 November 2017 in the Philippines.