Security and economic issues are expected to dominate from 25 to 28 April 2018
SINGAPORE will host the leaders of ASEAN for the 32nd ASEAN Summit from 25th to 28th April 2018 on its theme “Resilient and Innovative.” Only Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will not be attending as Nomination Day for Malaysia’s next General Election will be held this Saturday. Another leader not coming is Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar will be represented by President Win Myint.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s office on Tuesday, it said the leaders will discuss ASEAN’s priorities as well as the challenges and opportunities that it faces, in line with the focus on strengthening ASEAN’s resilience and innovation this year. The Leaders will also exchange views on regional and international developments.” Also planned are meetings of the ASEAN Ministers from the Political-Security and Economic sectors that will be chaired by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) Lim Hng Kiang.
A Straits Time report by its Regional Correspondent, Charissa Yong on 24th April 2018, stated that as this year’s ASEAN Chairman, Singapore is keen to develop a network of smart cities across ASEAN and boost the region’s cyber security and that during the summit, the leaders are expected to endorse and release statements outlining their vision to make ASEAN more resilient and innovative.
(Above frm left): Prime Ministers Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Lee Hsien Loong. During official visit to Vietnam in March 2017 at the launch of the Vietnamese translation of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs. (Photo by Ministry of Communication and Information / Betty Chua)
Official Visit by Vietnamese PM
The Summit also coincides with the Official Visit by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee. He is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and five other ministers.
Singapore is Vietnam’s top three foreign investor with about S$43.2 billion in investment spread over almost 2,000 projects. Trade between the two countries amounted to $21.6 billion in 2017. This is a 8.6 per cent increase over the previous year.
