A total of 29 countries are expected to attend the ministerial and related meetings, which will include courtesy calls by delegations from Brunei, Timor-Leste, Norway and Pakistan.
The parties will discuss, among other things, strengthening ASEAN’s capacity and institutional effectiveness to better respond to the current geopolitical challenges as well as the situation in Myanmar and humanitarian assistance to the country following Cyclone Mocha.
In February 2021, the military came to power in Myanmar. The opposition resorted to an armed struggle after a brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations by the military regime and the police.
Ever since, explosions of improvised devices and landmines planted on roads have become a regular occurrence in some of the regions of the country.
ASEAN is a union of 10 Southeast Asian states, aimed at fostering both political and economic cooperation among its members. It currently includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The rotating chairmanship of the bloc is taken on by each of its member states for 12 months. In 2023, Indonesia assumed the chairmanship of ASEAN.