Manila, 30 July 2007
Foreign Ministers of the ASEAN Member Nations as well as Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste; ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong; excellencies of the diplomatic corps; Speaker de Venecia; members of the Philippine senate; Senator Angara, former Senate President of the Philippines; Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and our Philippine nominee to the International Court of Justice; (applause) Mayor of Manila, Mayor Fred Lim; Vice Mayor of Pasay City, Vice Mayor Calixto; members of the cabinet and other government officials; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
A warm Filipino welcome to our ASEAN partners and allies from all over the world. Mabuhay!
Once more, we are gathered to set the course for our region. you come at a time in our history when we have made international relations a centerpiece of our economic agenda.
Our relations have never been stronger, from bilateral to multilateral relations, in our never-ending saga of cooperation, solidarity, fighting poverty and winning collective security.
During the ASEAN Summit in January, which we hosted in Cebu, we took several important steps that put us squarely on the path to create a regional community by 2015. most notably we issued the Declaration on the ASEAN Charter.
At a time of uncertainty in the world, ASEAN took a bold step forward by endorsing an ASEAN Charter that will expand and strengthen ASEAN. As chair of ASEAN, we were delighted that our fellow leaders seized the moment in history to do the right thing. That ASEAN brought so many nations and leaders together to discuss peace, security and social justice and economic growth is a testament to the desire of leaders and their people for greater collaboration between nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment