Transcript of Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo's Opening Remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the 1st Meeting of the 41st Asean Standing Committee on 20 August 2007

1 Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong, dear Director-Generals and dear colleagues. Welcome to Singapore to the opening of the 41st ASEAN Standing Committee. Allow me first to thank the Philippines from which Singapore takes over the chair. In the last one year, the Philippines has done a remarkable job, shepherding all of us forward on ASEAN's journey and we've made important progress in all fields. In the coming year, of course, we'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of ASEAN and we have some important milestones before us.

2 The first is the charter, which happily, is on its finishing stretch. We need one more meeting in Singapore before the ministers meet in New York at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. I do not know whether a date has already been settled but we're hoping that by early September, the foreign ministers can meet for half a day in Singapore to make some decisions, then the finishing touches can be put to the charter in New York before it is signed by the leaders in November.

3 The second task before us is community building, which involves three pillars. I am told that the blueprint to achieve the economic community by 2015 is mostly done. That is very important because it sets specific targets for our economic integration, which is the most important basis of an ASEAN community. But if the ASEAN community is only economic integration, I don't think we can go very far because sooner or later, there will be times when the divergence of national interests will pull us apart. So in addition to this, the leaders when they were in Bali, agreed that for the ASEAN community to work, it must have all three pillars - the economic, the security and the socio-cultural. And it is very important that even as we press forth on the economic pillar, that we also give full attention to the other two pillars. And unless the three pillars are strengthened simultaneously, sooner or later, there will be imbalances and cracks will appear. So that is the second big challenge before us.

4 The third great task that we have to do is to address the current challenges that confront not only us in ASEAN, but in a wider region and the world. For this year, our theme is energy, environmental protection, climate change and sustainable development. Men living in harmony with nature and men with men, so that in the course of development we do not undermine, destroy the very environment which enables us to thrive and to prosper. And whether it is the ASEAN agenda, the ASEAN+3 agenda, the EAS agenda, the APEC agenda, the UN agenda, environmental protection and climate change, and sustainable development, are all issues of the day. And how we expend energy, how we ensure energy security, are fundamental considerations which preoccupy every government today in the world. So we have our work cut out before us. We feel a heavy weight of responsibility on our shoulders in the chair and we can't do this work without your help, without your full cooperation. And just as we worked together with the Philippines, and with other previous chairs, we look forward to working with you while when we are in the chair, and also handing over to the Thais in a year's time and ASEAN in good repair.

5 At the heart of all this complicated ASEAN machinery is the ASEAN Standing Committee, which is all of you sitting around the table. It is like an elaborate timepiece - many moving parts but if you were to go right to the heart of it, there is a mechanism which rotates, keeps everything moving and on time and that's the ASEAN Standing Committee. And that's the role that we play here. It is a very important role, not noticed when it is working fine, but drawing all our attention when it is not working fine. And it is with this important role in mind that we meet this morning to launch the 41st Committee.

6 This morning we're also unveiling the logo for this year's Summit and we've chosen the motif of rice. Rice because we eat it every day here, all of us, in all the ten countries of ASEAN. Rice because many scientists believe that it originated here in Southeast Asia. It is of all the food grains, of all the carbo sources, the one which, per square kilometre, can sustain a higher population than any other. It is also the least allergenic. So it is a wonderful miracle of nature and of human selection and we're proud that it is so much a part of our lives, our social rhythms, our cultures here in Southeast Asia. And it is no wonder that the ASEAN logo from the beginning consisted of sheaths of padi stalk piled together - five, six, seven then now ten. And the social organisation needed for the cultivation of rice in the great plains of mainland Asia, whether it is the Chao Phraya, or the Mekong, the Yangtze, India, Java, Japan - it needed for its cultivation a high degree of social organisation. It required for its multiple cultivation a year, a certain organisation of the annual cycles of social rituals. And it is impossible to understand Asian culture without somehow a reference back to the cultivation of rice and so perhaps for this 40th anniversary of ASEAN, rice is a nice icon of what we are, of what we represent deep in our essence.

7 So, thank you all for coming for this first meeting. I wish all of you, the Director-Generals and Ong Keng Yong, the Secretary General, and all the officials, success in all your work, improved cooperation and a common unifying spirit. Thank you very much.

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