MFA Press Statement: 46th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting/ Post Ministerial Conferences/ 20th ASEAN Regional Forum/ 3rd East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting, 1 July 2013

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam, accompanied by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Grace Fu, attended the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs) in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam on 1 July 2013.  The ASEAN Foreign Ministers met their counterparts from Australia, Canada, India, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia, the United States of America and the European Union to review relations and ongoing cooperation.  Minister Shanmugam and Minister Fu co-chaired the ASEAN-Canada PMC with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, in our capacity as Country Coordinator of the ASEAN-Canada Dialogue.  The Ministers thanked Minister Baird for taking the trouble to co-Chair the PMC, 1 July 2013 being Canada Day notwithstanding.

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers attended a signing ceremony on the accession of the Kingdom of Norway to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), where the ASEAN Foreign Ministers signed the Instrument of Extension to allow Norway to accede to the TAC. 

Minister Shanmugam and Minister Fu had bilateral meetings with their counterparts from Canada and Vietnam.  The Ministers and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird discussed ways to strengthen ASEAN-Canada cooperation and exchanged views on economic and energy policies.  The Ministers also expressed appreciation for Canada’s support for Singapore’s application for Permanent Observer status at the Arctic Council. 

The Ministers and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh reaffirmed the excellent state of bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional developments, including the Trans Pacific Partnership and South China Sea.  The Ministers also looked forward to the signing of the Vietnam-Singapore Strategic Partnership Agreement. 

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
1 July 2013