(VOVworld) – The 47^th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM 47) and related meetings closed in Myanmar after 5 days. Attended by the foreign ministers of 27 countries, AMM 47 was the most important meeting of the year for ASEAN and its partners. The meeting released a joint communiqué stressing that ASEAN will continue to present a unified stance on internal and external affairs and regional and global issues.
The ministers hailed progress toward an ASEAN Community by 2015 and reiterated the commitment to developing an ASEAN Community that is politically connected and economically unified. ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh said the ministers showed unity on regional issues like the East Sea: “The ministers expressed their concern about recent developments that have escalated tensions in the East Sea and stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, navigational security, and free trade in the East Sea. They reiterated their commitment to ASEAN’s 6-point principles and the ASEAN-China Joint Statement on the 10^th anniversary of the DOC. They asked all parties to exercise restraint and avoid actions that might complicate the situation and be detrimental to peace, stability, and security in the East Sea, and settle disputes through peaceful measures in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”