KOTA BARU, June 18 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will lead the Malaysian delegation to the 34th Asean Summit and Related Summits from June 20 to 23 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The prime minister will be accompanied by his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Ali, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Ignatius Darrel Leiking and Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali as well as officials from the Prime Minister's Office, Wisma Putra, Ministry of International Trade and Industry and Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA). 

With the theme ‘Advancing Partnership for Sustainability’, the 34th Asean Summit is the first summit to be held under the chairmanship of Thailand this year, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a statement today.

The summit will provide leaders of the Asean member states the opportunity to exchange views on the future direction of Asean and its community-building process, the implementation of the Asean Community Vision 2025 as well as to discuss important regional and international issues.

The prime minister and other ministers will participate in three interfaces, namely the Asean leaders’ interface with representatives of Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), Asean Leaders’ Interface with representatives of Asean Youth, and Asean Leaders’ Interface with representatives of Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC). 

MFA said Dr Mahathir would also participate in the 13th Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia- Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) summit and the 12th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) summit that would be held on June 23.

During the visit, he will also officiate the Malaysia Fest 2019 at the Central World Shopping Mall and hold a roundtable business meeting with Thailand’s captains of industry, which will take place on June 21. — Bernama