The Second ASEAN Global Dialogue
On November 13, commencing at 8:20 a.m. (local time; 10:20 a.m. on November 13 JST) for about 1 hour and 50 minutes, the Second ASEAN Global Dialogue (Chair: Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia) was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Mr. KISHIDA Fumio, Prime Minister of Japan, attended the meeting. An overview of the meeting is as follows.
The ASEAN Global Dialogue is an initiative of Cambodia, the ASEAN Chair. The first meeting was held in 2012, when Cambodia assumed the ASEAN Chairmanship last time. The second dialogue was held under the theme of "Post-COVID-19 Comprehensive Recovery" and was attended by the Leaders of ASEAN Member States and ASEAN Dialogue Partners as well as the heads of international organizations.
1. Chair’s opening remarks
As the Chair, Prime Minister Hun Sen delivered an opening remarks and made the following points.
(1) ASEAN and its partners have to jointly address the common challenges in order to achieve the comprehensive recovery in the post-COVID-19 era, even though it would be a difficult path.
(2) All stakeholders need to be involved for the purpose. This is why Cambodia organizes the Second ASEAN Global Dialogue.
(3) The participants in the dialogue are expected to have fruitful discussions on the two topics of the dialogue: 1) Working Together Towards Inclusive Economic Recovery, and 2) Building Resilient and Sustainable ASEAN in the Post Covid-19 era
2. Remarks by Prime Minister Kishida
In his remarks, Prime Minister Kishida stated as follows.
(1) Japan and ASEAN have been cooperating with each other for peace, stability and prosperity in the region as true friends with heart-to-heart relations for the last half century, and extended a helping hand to each other in times of great crisis, such as the Asian Financial Crisis, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
(2) Japan have been a consistent and strong supporter of ASEAN unity and centrality, and had been supporting the implementation of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework. Japan has provided a total of 29.5 billion JPY in yen loans to support the economic recovery of ASEAN countries from the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan will continue to closely work with ASEAN to achieve an inclusive, robust and sustainable recovery in the post-COVID-19 era.
(3) Japan will strengthen cooperation with ASEAN in a wide range of areas such as connectivity, health, climate change, disaster prevention, food security, and people-to-people exchanges.
(4) As the next year marks the 50th year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, and Japan will hold a Commemorative Summit in Tokyo to jointly announce a vision for the future of ASEAN-Japan relations.
3. Remarks from other countries and international organizations
Other countries and international organizations made the following points in their remarks.
(1) Many countries and organizations pointed out that there are various short- and long-term challenges such as strengthening connectivity in supply chains, health sector including infectious disease control and universal health coverage (UHC), climate change countermeasures including energy transition, disaster prevention, food security, human resource development, women's empowerment, in order for the inclusive economic recovery and the building a resilient and sustainable ASEAN in the Post Covid-19 era.
(2) ASAEN countries expressed strong expectation for strengthening cooperation with dialogue partner countries and international organizations.
(3) The dialogue partner countries and international organizations also expressed their positive positions toward cooperation with ASEAN.
