Thai PM attends ASEAN Summit 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha is participating in the ASEAN Summit 2015 and related forums in Malaysia, scheduled for April 26-28, urging other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to collaborate, instead of competing with each other. Airing his vision at the 26th ASEAN Summit and related forums, which started in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, on Monday morning, Prime Minister General Prayut said he hoped that ASEAN members would reduce competition among themselves and join forces for sustainable economic cooperation in the region. Government Spokesman Dr. Yongyuth Mayalarp told TNA the Thai prime minister also proposed that ASEAN become a people-centered community, get rid of non-tariff trade barriers and haze, as well as maintain peace in compliance with the peacekeeping framework of the United Nations so that ASEAN could play important roles in the global arena. At a session of ASEAN leaders and representatives of ASEAN youths, the Thai prime minister suggested that ASEAN campaign for social responsibility among the regional youngsters, develop their agricultural expertise and prepare themselves for economic challenges. The Thai prime minister also expressed his condolences for the demise of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and losses resulting from last weekend's powerful earthquake in Nepal, the worst over the past eight decades in the land-locked South Asian Nation, killing about 3,700 people so far, based on updated international media reports. The Thai prime minister and other ASEAN leaders later left Kuala Lumpur for Langkawi Island. (TNA)