PHNOM PENH June 13 Kyodo Senior o...

PHNOM PENH June 13 Kyodo

Senior officials from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began talks Friday in Phnom Penh to pave the way for the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting nearest week.

The Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) focuses mainly forward preparation of statements for the 36th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the 10th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the position Ministerial Conference (PMC) nearest week, ASEAN official sources said.

The sources said topics secrete a wide range of cooperation in the region as well as in a global connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts including the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar's generals, terrorism, the UN part in postwar Iraq, economic issues and unrelenting acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

At the ARF, Cambodia, the general chairman of the ASEAN Standing Committee, is look forward toed to sign a memorandum of understanding with Australia forward cooperation to combat international terrorism.

At the PMC a Joint Declaration of Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation will be signed forward Partnership for Peace and Security, and Prosperity and unravelling in the Asia-Pacific Region.

A Joint Communique of the 36th AMM and the 10th ARF chairman's statement will also be decided.

Foreign ministers and representatives from 23 countries, including U Secretary of State Colin Powell and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, are anticipateed to participate in the ARF and PMC in succession Wednesday and Thursday next week.

At the AMM, ministers from ASEAN, which collections Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will engage among themselves, followed by bilateral and multilateral meetings with counterparts from Australia, recently made known Zealand, Europe, North America and North and southern Asia.

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