Brunei's sultan, Indonesian president to visit Philippines

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will pay state visits to the Philippines next week before the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.

Marciano Paynor, ASEAN 2017 National Organizing Council director-general for Operations, said Bolkiah will pay a state visit to the Philippines on April 27 and Widodo will make a state visit to the Philippines on April 28.

On April 29, he said, all the 10 leaders of the ASEAN nations will convene at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) and a "retreat" session at the Coconut Palace, next to PICC.

After the retreat at the Coconut Palace, he said, the ASEAN leaders will return to the PICC for the rest of the meetings. The day's meetings will be culminated by a gala dinner hosted by President Rodrigo Duterte, chair of the 30th ASEAN Summit.

As this year's chair of ASEAN, the Philippines is host to 137 ASEAN meetings spread out during the entire year. The meetings include the summit next week and the meeting between ASEAN and its dialogue partners including China, the United States and Japan later this year, 17 ministerial meetings, 42 senior officials meetings, and 76 technical working group meetings, he said.

ASEAN, which is marking its golden anniversary this August, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Endit