The ECO and ASEAN Ministers met on the side lines of the 58^th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 30, 2003 at 12:30 hrs. The meeting was co-chaired by the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan H. E Mr. Kassymzomart K. Tokayev and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Peoples Republic of Laos H.E. Mr. Somsavat Langsavad. The meeting was attended by Permanent Representatives of both ECO and ASEAN countries as well as the Secretary Generals of ECO and ASEAN. List of participants is annexed as Annex-I.

 

2.       Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan calling the meeting to order welcomed the guests. The meeting approved the agenda with consensus (Annex-II).

 

Agenda item # 1

Statement on behalf of ASEAN

 

3.       Co Chairman and Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan H. E. Kassymzomart K. Tokayev invited the Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Lao to make the opening statement on behalf of ASEAN.

 

4.       H.E. Mr. Somsavat Langsavad, Foreign Minister of Lao welcomed the guests on behalf of ASEAN and stated that the purpose of this meeting was to deepen ECO-ASEAN beneficial relations. He said that the two regions last year shared the same problem of financial crisis and terrorism; and during their travail their relationship became stronger. He informed that ASEAN leaders in 1997 adopted a 2020 vision for ASEAN which was a very significant event for the integration of ASEAN countries. He stated that Hanoi Plan of Action, the ASEAN Treaty Area and other such mechanism had been a stabilizing factor in ASEAN.

 

5.       H.E. Mr. Somsavat Langsavad pointed out the fact that there were potential areas for cooperation and the two organizations should work hand in hand to build upon their present level of cooperation.

 

Agenda Item # 2:

Statement on behalf of ECO

 

6.       Foreign Minister and Co Chairman from ECO side H. E Kassymzomart K. Tokayev thanked the participants for attending the meeting. He said that both ECO and ASEAN are striving to deepen their mutual relations and with the induction of new secretary generals both in ECO and ASEAN, this objective is likely to receive a new fillip. Foreign Minister urged the two sides to carry out the proposed study on cooperation between ECO and ASEAN, the soonest possible. Complete text of his statement is annexed as Annex III.

 

Agenda Item # 3:

Exchange of views on efficiency and effectiveness of regional organizations

 

7.       Speaking on this agenda item the Co-Chairman H.E Tokayev said that regionalism and globalism would go hand in hand in coming years to serve the development needs of the world. Complete text of his statement is annexed as Annex IV. Similar views were expressed by other participants.

 

Agenda Item # 4

Discussion on the ASEAN-ECO Cooperation

(i)  Presentation by the ASEAN Secretariat

 

8.       The secretary General of ASEAN H.E Ong Keng Yong said that ASEAN is presently focusing on converting itself into ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on the model of a single common market. Mr. Keng said that the objective is to seek free flow of goods and services as well as technical people personals across borders in the South East Asia. The Secretary General said that if ECO wishes, it could also try to model ASEAN successes and ASEAN was ready to lend any technical support, in this regard.

 

9.       The Secretary General of ASEAN also shed light on the model of relations which ASEAN is following with the outside world. He informed that ASEAN had dialogue partnership arrangement with ten countries including USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, India and Russia etc and they were working with each specific partner for specific projects and programmes. He said that he was in touch with ECO Secretary General H.E. Narbayev and would like to work on concrete ideas, project and programmes for which some funding would be required. He expressed the hope that member states would be able to provide such funding.

 

(ii)  Presentation by the ECO Secretariat

 

10.     Secretary General of ECO H.E. Ambassador Bekzhasar Narbayev in his statement thanked the Co-Chairing Foreign Ministers, Secretary General of ASEAN for their contributory comments. He said that he had noted all the points of the meeting and will do his best to carry out work in the direction given by the meeting. He stated that he would shortly send a senior representative from ECO secretariat to carry out the required study in consultations with the ASEAN secretariat. Complete text of his statement is annexed as Annex V.

 

(iii)  Exchange of views

 

11.     Representative of Cambodia stated that the two organizations should work to develop energy resources and improve regional trade.

 

12.     It was also expressed during the meeting that the trade Exhibition and other trade promotions activities between the countries of the two regions was an efficient way for deepening the cooperation between two regions. Sending trade missions to each other’s countries was also mentioned in the discussions.

 

13.     Representative of Iran referring to the areas chosen for cooperation between the two organizations said that feasible projects might be initiated and in this regard ASEAN could cooperate with ECO. He also suggested signing a dialogue partnership agreement or legal instruments for concretizing the relations between the two organizations. Cooperation in the field of telecommunication, energy utilization, trade and transport were also mentioned.

 

14.     Representative of Pakistan suggested that fields chosen for cooperation could be divided into two baskets. One with drug and organized crime as ingredients and other with trade, investment, industry, energy etc. He said ECO region is well endowed with energy resources and trade opportunities and opportunities of cooperation in wide variety of economic areas are abundant. He said that anti-narcotics and drive against Organized Crime was also important for both regions and therefore should draw sufficient attention. He suggested that a working group of experts in each area be constituted for developing themes of cooperation and its execution.

 

Agenda Item # 5

Any other business

 

15.     No issue was discussed under this agenda item.

 

Vote of Thanks

 

16.     The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair and a family photo of all the participants.