The Kingdom of Cambodia will host the Nineteenth Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (19th ARF) in Phnom Penh on 12 July 2012. The Meeting will chaired by H.E. Mr. HOR Namhong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chair of ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting. The Meeting will be attended by Foreign Ministers and Representative of all the 27 ARF Participants and the Secretary-General of ASEAN.
The ARF is the main regional forum in which the Ministers is expected to conduct open and frank discussion on regional and international security issues and cooperation to promote peace, security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. The Meeting is also expected to review the implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action to Implement the ARF Vision Statement 2020 and all other current work plans in a consistent and comprehensive manner in order to support development of the ARF from the phase of confidence building to preventive diplomacy.
The Ministers are also expected to adopt the ARF Work Plan on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, which provides sets of measures to promote the three central pillars of the global non-proliferation regime: preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), advancing global disarmament efforts, and promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The Ministers will also touch on ways and means of how ARF participants can better address natural disaster issues a, and are expected to adopt the new Implementation Annex of the ARF Work Plan on Disaster Relief. In this connection, the Ministers are expected to call for further commitments to contribute to the AHA Centre.
The Ministers will also approve the ARF DiREx to be co-hosted by Thailand and the Republic of Korea in the inter-sessional year 2012-2013.
H.E. Mr. HOR Namhong Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Cambodia, in his capacity as the Chair of the ARF, will issue the ARF Chairman’s Statement on the outcomes of the 19th ARF. /ends