Statement by H.E. Mr. Kassymzomart K. Tokayev, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan

Annex-III

Excellencies,

 

          We are very pleased to organize this 8th Joint ECO-ASEAN Ministerial meeting with H.E. Mr. Somsavat Lengsavad, Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

 

          I also wish to welcome the Permanent Representatives and other delegates to this meeting.

 

          Since 1995, we are engaged to develop our relations. I don’t want to go into the details of our relations as we all are already familiar with it. However, I could not refrain from sharing with you that we have mixed results so far. We wanted to deepen our relations but the constraints are understandable.

 

I am glad to note that our two Secretaries General met in July this year, on the occasion of the 8th Consultative meeting between the Executive Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations, and were able to exchange experiences not only between our two organizations but also with UN-ESCAP, SAARC and Pacific Island Forum.

 

          Our new Secretary General Ambassador Bekzhasar Narbayev is an astute diplomat so is the incumbent Secretary General of ASEAN, H.E. Mr. Ong Keng Yong. Both these eminent and able Secretaries General need our support which I am confident would be forthcoming. In the first place, we must carry out the study on strengthening ECO-ASEAN Cooperation and report to our next meeting any progress on the basis of this study.

 

          As, we know that there are statements by the two Secretaries General in agenda item 4. I better leave it to the two Secretaries General to let us know about their vision, strategy and plans for building on the existing foundation of cooperation between our two organizations.

 

          Thank you.

       

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