The rising A/H1N1 virus outbreak issue will be raised for discussion at the forthcoming ASEAN meetings in Thailand, Vitavas Srivihok, Director-General of the ASEAN Affairs Department of the Thai Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua during an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

Earlier on May 7-8, in a bid to find preventive steps to fight the new flu outbreak, Thailand hosted a special meeting of health ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, and South Korea in Bangkok.

The next step after the May meeting is that Thailand will be the hub of the antiviral vaccine production, which will be available for both the ASEAN countries and others around the world, he said.

Moreover, Thailand is going to host the 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) and 16th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in the southern province of Phuket from July 17 to 23.

The new virus outbreak issue is going to be raised for the discussion among the foreign ministers from the ASEAN Plus Three countries and in the other forums, he said.

"It is going to be one of our priorities to discuss with the participating countries (during the forthcoming meetings)," said Vitavas.

At the meeting venues, a special medical unit will be set up in order to take care of the health of the participants, while protective face masks will also be available for the participants.

Thailand is the ASEAN chairmanship for this year and during the meetings in Phuket over 1,200 delegates from 26 countries and related organizations will be in Phuket, with a total of 32 ASEAN-related meetings.

The theme for these meetings is "Acting Together to Cope with Global Challenges."

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2009)