JAKARTA, 29 April 2020 – The Chinese government reinforced their support to ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) through an additional donation of 20,000 surgical masks from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Kung Phoak received the contribution from China’s Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun in a closed ceremony held at the ASEC Heritage Building.
Deputy Secretary-General Kung Phoak highlighted that this additional support will further enhance and sustain the preventive measures taken by ASEC in order to protect all of its staff from the threats of COVID-19.
He further added that ASEAN and China’s strong commitment to take collective action against the threats of COVID-19 will diminish the impacts of this pandemic on public health, economic and social welfare, among others.
On his part, Ambassador Xijun underscored that “the masks provided today is from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the only province in China that is physically connected through land and sea with ASEAN Member States.’’ He said that “due to this special bond, Guangxi has been following closely the situation in ASEAN and learning from the shortage of masks in the region, Guangxi provincial government immediately allocated batches of masks from its emergency reserve.’’
The ambassador further elaborated that this crisis has highlighted the inter-connection between China and ASEAN, the value of mutual support and assistance in times of crisis, the need to set up stronger regional cooperation mechanisms, and the urgency of building a more closely-knit community of a shared future.
The ASEAN Health Sector cooperation with the health counterparts from China has continued strongly through their timely and transparent information sharing and technical exchanges.
The ASEAN Plus Three Health Ministers Special Video Conference on COVID-19 held on 7 April further committed to bolstering the coordination on orchestrated response measures and rapid research and development for diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines.
- ABOUT ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN on 7 January 1984, followed by Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.Menu - WHAT WE DO
ASEAN organs always strive to achieve ASEAN’s goals and objectives, the Secretary-General of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat shall be functioned as coordinating Secretariat to help facilitate effective decision-making withing and amongst ASEAN bodies. In addition, each Member State shall appoint a Permanent Representative to liaise with Secretary-General of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat
Menu - WHO WE WORK WITH
ASEAN shall develop friendly relations and mutually beneficial dialogues, cooperation and partnerships with countries and sub-regional, regional and international organisations and institutions. This includes external partners, ASEAN entities, human rights bodies, non-ASEAN Member States Ambassadors to ASEAN, ASEAN committees in third countries and international organisations, as well as international / regional organisations.
Menu - OUR COMMUNITIES
The rodmap for an ASEAN Community (2009-2015) was declared by the leaders in 2009. The ASEAN Community, anchored on three community pillars: Political-Security Community, Economic Community, Socio-Cultural Community was launched in 2015. The ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together was introduced in 2015 as a Post-2015 Vision. It comprises the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2025, the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025 and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025
Menu
