Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung Vietnam led a Vietnam delegation to ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and a meeting between ASEAN and its partners within the framework of ASEAN+3 partners (China, Japan and the Republic of Korea), the East Summit Asia (EAS) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) taking placing in Kuchin, Malaysia from June 7-11.

The Malaysia Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that ASEAN SOM began on June 8, followed by SOM ASEAN + 3 and SOM EAS on June 9 and ARF SOM on June 10.

At the meetings, the participating countries will discuss next steps adopted at the 26th ASEAN Summit held in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi late last April to prepare for the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of ASEAN (AMM) and related meetings slated to be held in Kuala Lumpur in August.

The conference is expected to draw the participation of senior officials from ASEAN member countries and ASEAN’s dialogue partners (Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan , New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the US) as well as other ARF members-Bangladesh, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) , Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, and the ASEAN Secretariat.

VNA