ASEAN`s significant progress towards the formation of an ASEAN Community 2015 was one of three priorities set by Indonesia for its one-year leadership, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said at the handing over ceremony of ASEAN Permanent Representative Head post at the ASEAN Secretariat here Wednesday.
It would begin with having a measurable scorecard needed to assess achievements made by each ASEAN member country in implementing ASEAN policies politically, economically and socio-culturally.
The ASEAN Secretariat would play an important role in measuring all achievements made by ASEAN member nations, he said.
The second priority will be the relations between ASEAN and other regions, particularly concerning the East Asia Summit (EAS) which consists of Japan, China, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, India, and two newly accepted members, the US and Russia.
The inclusion of the US and Russia in EAS was proposed by Indonesia in order to achieve a dynamic equilibrium, he said.
The third priority, according to Marty, is ASEAN should have a common platform on global issues.
"Indonesia`s main task as the ASEAN chairman is also to make sure that there will be significant progress in the issues of democracy and human rights," he said.
The priorities would be discussed in a Senior Official Meeting (SOM) of ASEAN which will be held in Lombok, January 13-14, 2011.
Indonesia officially took over the ASEAN Chairmanship from Viet Nam on 1 January. Indonesia`s theme for its Chairmanship, "ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations".
The new chairman of permanent representatives to ASEAN is Indonesia`s Permanent Representative to ASEAN Ambassador I Gede Ngurah Swajaya.
(SYS/F001/S012)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
