THE Philippines is ready to receive nine leaders of Southeast Asian Nations who will be visiting the country this week for the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit to be held in Manila this week.
“Saturday will be a very long day for them, but our President is ready for it. We already briefed him on where will he go, what he’ll be doing, and what will be discussed,” Asean National Organizing Committee Director-General Ambassador Marciano Paynor said of President Rodrigo Duterte, who chairs the 10-nation regional bloc this year.
“This is his first time, it’s expected that he does not know all the issues, but of the many issues, he has a fairly good grasp of these,” he added.
More than 2,000 delegates, including top government officials, are flying into Manila for the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
Preparatory meetings, involving Asean ministers and senior officials, will take place from April 26 to 28.
Of the 10 Asean leaders, only Myanmar President Htin Kyaw will not be able to attend the 30th Summit. Instead, state counselor and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will represent her country.
“Over the recent past, this has been the case. So Aung San Suu Kyi represented Myanmar in the last Asean summit in Laos,” said Paynor.
During his meeting with Suu Kyi, Duterte gave $300,000 to the Myanmar government for the humanitarian efforts in the troubled state of Rakhine. Suu Kyi thanked the Philippines for its donation.
The 30th Asean Summit is the first of two leader-level meetings that the Philippines will convene this year as chairman of Asean. The second one, the 31st Asean Summit and Related Summits, will be held in November at Clark, Pampanga and will be joined by the Asean’s dialogue partners, such as Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.
Before the actual leaders’ meeting on April 29, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian President Widodo will hold state visits on April 27 and April 28, respectively.
The theme for this year’s summit is “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.” With Vito Barcelo
