Tokyo: A new vision of cooperation between Japan and the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be presented at a bilateral summit in Tokyo in December designed to mark the 50th anniversary of the parties’ friendship, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday.
“In December, I plan to organize the ASEAN-Japan commemorative summit meeting for the 50th year of the ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation in Tokyo. At the commemorative summit meeting, a new vision of ASEAN-Japan cooperation will be announced,” Kishida told a national press conference after the end of the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
ASEAN is a political and economic union that was founded in 1967. The organization comprises 10 Southeast Asian countries — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The association promotes economic, political, defense and cultural cooperation between its member states.
Japan and ASEAN have been working together since 1973, when they established a forum on synthetic rubber. In 1978, the first ASEAN-Japan Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and later it became a regular event.
