Singapore Government Press Release

Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts,

MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369

Tel: 6837-9666

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRESS STATEMENT

37TH AMM/PMC/11TH ARF

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Law, Prof S Jayakumar, will attend the 37th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM), the annual Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) and the 11th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 29 June to 2 July 2004. Minister Jayakumar will be accompanied by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mr Raymond Lim, and senior officials.

The theme for this year's AMM is "Striving for Full Integration of ASEAN: A Prosperous, Caring and Peaceful Community". During the AMM, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers will review the progress of ASEAN's activities over the past year and chart new directions for the year ahead. On 1 July, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers will meet their counterparts from the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers will review the progress and discuss the future of ASEAN+3 cooperation at the meeting.

At the PMC on 1 July, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers will be meeting their 10 Dialogue Partners to discuss regional and international issues. They will also meet individually with six of the Dialogue partners, namely Australia, Canada, The European Union, New Zealand, Russia and the United States, to exchange views on regional cooperation. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers will meet the Foreign Ministers of the other four Dialogue Partners, namely China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, during the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, in November 2004.

On 2 July 2004, the ARF Ministers will exchange views on regional and international developments. They will also consider the ARF Statements on Non-Proliferation and Strengthening Transport Security Against International Terrorism. The ARF Statement on Non-Proliferation, proposed by the US, is intended to encourage ARF participants to enhance efforts to prevent the proliferation of WMD and their means of delivery. Philippines and Russia had proposed the ARF Statement on Strengthening Transport

Security Against International Terrorism as a follow-up to earlier ARF Ministerial statements on border security and maritime security adopted in 2003.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

28 JUNE 2004