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Delegates gather ahead of Southeast Asian FMs' meetings in Laos

Xinhua, July 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Senior officials, diplomats and permanent representatives to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered in the Lao capital Thursday ahead of the 49th Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) and Post-Ministerial Conferences (PMC) set to open Sunday.

Delegates including ASEAN Deputy Secretaries-General were scheduled to be welcomed to an official dinner hosted by Lao ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) leader, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office Alounkeo Kittikhoun Thursday evening.

According to the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 49th AMM and associated meetings will see the group's foreign ministers and representatives of dialogue partners exchange views on regional and international issues of common concern and interest.

Associated meetings to be hosted in Vientiane include the 17th ASEAN plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) Foreign Ministers' Meeting (APT), the 6th East Asia Summit (EAS) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, and 23rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as well as the meeting of the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) Treaty Commission.

The AMM is one of the multi-sectoral meetings being hosted by Laos as per its 2016 chairmanship of the ASEAN grouping, culminating in the heads-of-government East Asia Summit set for Sept. 6-8 in Vientiane. Endit