Southeast Asian leaders adopt Nay Pyi Taw declaration on ASEAN community’s post-2015 vision

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a declaration on the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision at the 25th ASEAN Summit held in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw.

President Benigno S. Aquino III and his fellow Southeast Asian leaders adopted on November 12 the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration on ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision.

Under the declaration, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community (2009-2015), and to the Bali Declaration on the ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations (Bali Concord III) and its Plan of Action (2012-2017).

The declaration also recognized the “achievements of the three ASEAN community pillars, political and security, economic and socio-cultural, as well as the current and emerging challenges facing ASEAN.”

Among the central elements of the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision include promoting Southeast Asia “as a region of peace, stability and prosperity, as well as an inter-connected, and a caring and sharing community with unity in diversity.”

The ASEAN leaders will continue to “consolidate the ASEAN Community and deepen ASEAN integration as the foundation for its post-2015 vision, with enhanced and expanded cooperation and coherence among the three ASEAN Community pillars.”

ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision also aims to promote ASEAN as “a rules-based community bound by shared principles, values and norms,” as well as to promote ASEAN as “a people-oriented, people-centered community through, among others, active engagement with all relevant stakeholders.”

Another element of the Post-2015 Vision is to build “a resilient community with enhanced capacity and capability to collectively respond to emerging trends and challenges, as well as to promote “inclusive, sustained and equitable economic growth, as well as sustainable development, consistent with the UN’s post-2015 development agenda.”

The leaders will also promote development of clear and measurable “ASEAN Development Goals” to serve as ASEAN benchmark for key socio-economic issues; maintain an outward-looking ASEAN region; and enhance ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture.

They will also seek to “build ASEAN’s common platform to discuss global issues of common concern so as to raise ASEAN’s profile and enhance its relevance in the global community by continuing to be an active and credible global partner that contributes and responds to key global issues of common concern and implementing the Bali Concord III (2011-2022) and its Plan of Action (2012-2017).”

The ASEAN leaders will also “enhance ASEAN’s institutional capacity and its working methods to be able to tackle emerging challenges and support increased cooperation, especially by strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of ASEAN Organs.”

The ASEAN Community consists of three community pillars, namely the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

Southeast Asian leaders on Wednesday gathered at Nay Pyi Taw for the two-day ASEAN summit. The summit was themed, “Moving Forward in Unity to A Peaceful and Prosperous Community," to highlight the importance of a united ASEAN.

ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. (PCOO News Release)