They respectively were Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah Mu`izzaddin Waddaulah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato` Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, President of the Philippines Benigno S. Aquino III, Senior Minister of Singapore S. Jayakumar representing Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
After the welcoming ceremony, they proceeded to the Assembly Hall for a series of meetings.
The meetings include ASEAN Leaders Meeting with APA (ASEAN People`s Assembly) Representatives, ASEAN Leaders Informal Meeting with Youth Representatives and Leaders Informal Meeting with Civil Society`s Representatives.
In the evening, President Yudhoyono will host a banquet for the ASEAN member countries` leaders.
Indonesia as this year`s ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) chair, is hosting the 18th ASEAN Summit being held in Jakarta, May 7-8, 2011.
The 18th ASEAN Summit`s theme is "Towards A Global Community of Nations."
ASEAN was established in 1967 with five members -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995 and Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and finally Cambodia as the 10th member in 1999.
As Chair of ASEAN this year, Indonesia has three key priorities. The First is to ensure significant progress of achieving ASEAN Community by 2015; The second priority is to strengthen ASEAN cohesion to craft East Asia wide regionalism and architecture; and The third priority is to ensure that regional agreements and cooperation can contribute to global agreements and governance. (*)
F001/H-NG/O001
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
