BANGKOK, Oct 31 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will have a packed schedule with back-to-back meetings at the 35th Asean Summit which begins here on Saturday.
He is scheduled to attend at least eight summit meetings with leaders from the grouping and from the region, as well as two bilateral meetings with his Thai counterpart General Prayut Chan-o-cha and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during the three-day Summit at the IMPACT Convention and Exhibition Centre here.
“The main agenda of these meetings is to exchange views on bilateral relations, and regional and international issues,” said Malaysian Ambassador to Thailand Datuk Jojie Samuel at a press conference today on the prime minister’s visit to attend the 35th Asean Summit.
The prime minister and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali are scheduled to arrive here tomorrow.
His official working visit begins on Saturday with a trip to the Asean Community Exhibition at the IMPACT Exhibition Centre in Nonthaburi, where he will tour the Malaysian exhibition site and give support to promotions on Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign.
He will then attend the Asean Business and Investment Summit dialogue session (ABIS 2019) themed Empowering Asean 4.0, which is organised by the Asean Business and Advisory Council. It will be followed by the plenary session of the 35th Asean Summit, which will discuss the agenda “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability” and foreign relations and future direction of Asean as well as regional and international issues.
During the three days of the summit, the prime minister will attend eight meetings, the 22nd Asean-China Summit, 16th Asean-India Summit, 10th Asean-United Nations Summit, 22nd Asean Plus Three Summit (APT), 7th Asean-United States Summit, 14th East Asia Summit (EAS), 22nd Asean-Japan Summit and 3rd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Summit (RCEP).
According to Jojie, the 35th Asean Summit is important because it gives Asean leaders an opportunity to review and study current issues and the Asean Community Agenda following the establishment of the Asean Community and endorsement of Asean 2025: Forging Ahead Together (Asean Vision 2025) in 2019 as well as the success of Asean chairmanship by Thailand.
He said this summit would see 13 documents being issued, 14 documents endorsed and 16 documents acknowledged.
The prime minister will be accompanied to the summit by Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darell Leiking. — Bernama
