"There will be a declaration of Brazil`s accession to the TAC," Director of ASEAN Politics and Security at the Foreign Ministry Ade Padmo Sarwono said following an ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting held ahead of the 19th ASEAN Summit here.
He said the Brazilian foreign minister was expected to read out the declaration of his country`s accession to the TAC. Afterwards, the ASEAN foreign ministers would read out a joint statement declaring ASEAN`s approval of Brazil`s accession to the treaty.
The declaration of Brazil`s accession to the treaty would take place at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC), after which the Indonesian foreign ministry would call a press conference related to the matter.
TAC is a peace treaty among Southeast Asian countries established by the association`s founding members.
The treaty began to take effect on February 24, 1976 and was signed by ASEAN leaders at that time such as Soeharto, Lee Kuan Yew, Ferdinand Marcos, Datuk Hussein Onn, and Kukrit Pramoj.
The treaty was amended on December 15, 1987 by allowing non-ASEAN members to join the treaty and was amended again on July 25, 1998 by adding a clause to the treaty related to compulsory approval by all member states.
China was the first non-ASEAN member state to sign the TAC, followed by India.
The 19th ASEAN Summit will be attended by heads of state/government from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Heads of state/government of China, South Korea and Japan are expected to join the ASEAN+3 and East Asian Summits. Meanwhile, heads of state/government, namely the United States, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and India will only attend the East Asia Summit.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
