The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday set Dec. 31, 2015 as the deadline for the realization of an ASEAN Community, a Cambodian senior official said Sunday.
General view of ASEAN leaders and officials attending the 21st ASEAN Summit - Plenary Session in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 18 November 2012. Cambodia is playing host the 21st Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit from 15-20 November 2012. [Photo: CFP] |
The deadline was unanimously agreed by the bloc's leaders during the 21st ASEAN Summit here in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
"The leaders decided to take the actual date of Dec. 31, 2015 as the deadline for the realization of ASEAN community building," Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press briefing after the Summit.
The announced deadline was one year behind the original schedule of Jan. 1, 2015.
The ASEAN Community, which is expected to materialize in 2015, will be based on three pillars, namely a security community, an economic community and a socio-cultural community.
Malaysia will have the responsibility of organizing the celebrations, as ASEAN heads to the 2015 Community under Kuala Lumpur's chairmanship. This is just one of the initiatives decided by the leaders of the ASEAN member states in the Cambodian Capital Sunday.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.