At the Plenary Hall of the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), President Mohammed Shahabuddin participated in the opening ceremony of the 43rd ASEAN summit today.
The three-day summit, which has “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth” as its subject, will take place from September 5 to 7 under the leadership of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
At at 9:50 a.m. (local time), President Shahabuddin of Bangladesh and his wife, Dr. Rebecca Sultana, arrived at the summit site.
Following a traditional state reception, they were greeted upon arrival by the Indonesian President and the ASEAN chair.
In addition to the Bangladesh President and his spouse, the Indonesian President also posed for pictures with his wife, Iriana Joko Widodo.
The President is joined at the inaugural ceremony by Saima Wazed, the chair of Bangladesh’s national advisory committee on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, and Dr. AK Abdul Momen, the foreign minister.
The summit’s opening session will feature participation from six heads of state and government as well as 10 organizational leaders from ASEAN nations.
As many as 27 world leaders and important figures from international organizations, including the executive directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, were invited to the summit by the host nation Indonesia, according to the ASEAN secretary general.
The ASEAN summit will feature the issue of development and strengthening of the organisation’s cooperation with external partners, several important themes such as the Code of Conduct regarding the South China Sea, the South East Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ), the ASEAN Maritime Outlook, the ASEAN Outlook in Indo Pacific (AOIP), and issues related to Myanmar.
It is also expected that the summit will also witness several important agreements related to ASEAN infrastructure strengthening, food security, blue economy, green economy, digital economy and payment ecosystem, according to ASEAN secretariat.
The president of Bangladesh will attend the 18th “East Asia Summit (EAS)” outside of the summit, where he will speak during the event’s closing session.
The East Asia Summit will include 10 ASEAN nations in addition to the United States, the Russian Federation, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and India.
On September 7, the Head of State will hold separate bilateral talks with Joko Widodo of Indonesia, Dr. Salman Al Farisi, the secretary general of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), and Pham Minh Chinh, the prime minister of Vietnam.
The ASEAN summit is a biannual meeting as it serves as a prominent regional (Asia) and international (worldwide) conference, with world leaders attending its related summits and meetings to discuss various problems and global issues.
