20th ASEAN summit opens in Cambodia’s capital

ASEAN foreign ministers sign documents during a ceremony on the sidelines of the 20th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh on April 2, 2012.

Tue Apr 3, 2012
PressTV.com

The 20th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has opened in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, with the participation of leaders from Asian countries.

Dubbed “ASEAN: One Community, One Destiny“, this year’s summit brings together heads of state from 10 member states and is chaired by Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The summit’s main focus is to turn the 10 disparate nations and their combined population of 600 million people into a European Union-like community by 2015.

The two-day summit is expected to discuss a wide range of issues including the South China Sea dispute, North Korea’s rocket launch plans and Myanmar’s by-elections.

“This time the deliberation on the ASEAN economy and its integration is critical, particularly in relation to the internal and external cooperation of ASEAN in addressing the current issues of the world economy,” Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said in a statement on Monday.

Established in 1967, ASEAN comprises of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.