Thailand hosts informal ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting

BANGKOK, August 14 (TNA) - Thailand hosts an informal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Prachuap Khiri Khan province to prepare topics for a special ASEAN-China meeting in Beijing late this month. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul told journalists on Wednesday morning, before the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat, held in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin seaside area, that discussions at the informal meeting include preparations of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the upcoming special ASEAN-China meeting, set to be held in Beijing from August 28-30, as well as the empowerment of ASEAN and the direction of ASEAN after the formation of the ASEAN Community (AC) by 2015. Besides, Surapong acknowledged, the meeting will also discuss the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) so that it will be developed together with the Code of Conduct (COC) that Thailand and China will start to officially discuss in September 2013. According to the deputy premier, there is also an agenda on Thailand’s plan to reach new markets in Africa, which will be followed suit by other ASEAN member countries, and an issue of countries in Latin America expressing their interests in meeting ASEAN ministers in November 2013, which, the Thai deputy prime minister noted, is a good opportunity as normally they meet once a year at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Thai deputy premier said that he will also meet Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the forthcoming special ASEAN-China meeting. The Thai deputy premier revealed, meanwhile, that he has asked Lao Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith to invite the Lao Prime Minister to meet Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in an alms-giving ceremony at the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge in Nong Khai province in the Thai Northeast at the end of the three-month Buddhist Lent. The Thai deputy premier noted that he has also discussed with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on bilateral cooperation between Bangkok and Hanoi on not doing a price war on rice to protect farmers, and that the issue will be raised as well at the next ASEAN Summit in Brunei in October, 2013. The Thai deputy prime minister is scheduled to have an official meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok on Wednesday evening to discuss the issue of Rohingya migrants from Myanmar who have stayed in Thailand for six months. About 2,000 Rohingya migrants were initially under the care of Thai authorities, but the number later dropped to about 1,700 because of their escape. (TNA)