Two-day 14th ASEAN Summit begins in Bangkok Friday

February 26, 2009.

In Thailand, senior officials, senior economic officials and Director-Generals of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held parallel meetings on Thursday to discuss preparations for the 14th ASEAN Summit and related meetings at the ministerial level.

The two-day Summit will be officially opened on Saturday. This year's theme of the Summit is "ASEAN Charter for ASEAN Peoples. A Foreign Ministry Spokesman said regional integration, global financial crisis, human rights, food and energy security, labor and trade issues are expected to dominate discussions at the summit.

It is expected that 24 declarations, agreements and statements will be signed or adopted by ASEAN Leaders, Foreign Ministers and Economic Ministers during the summit. The Declaration on the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009-2015 will be signed by the leaders. This will set out the guidelines for the creation of a single free trade area for the region by 2015.

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