Senior officials from the 10 member states of the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met on January 27 in Malaysia’s KotaKinabalu city.

The officials discussed the Agendafor ASEAN Community Building initiated during the association’s 25th Summit, including the reinforcement of the ASEAN Secretariatand the consideration of Timor Leste’s application to join the bloc.

The ASEAN Secretariat also delivered a report from a meeting regardingSerbia, Iran and Morocco’s proposal to join the Treaty of Amityand Cooperation (TAC) with the ASEAN.

During themeeting, the officials discussed the post-2015 vision, reviewed someregulations of the East Asia Summit, and decided contents to bediscussed at the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Retreat on January 28.

External relations of the bloc were also focused on, including theoutcomes of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit in December 2014 andproposed plans for an ASEAN-Russia Summit in Moscow in 2015 or 2016.Participants also heard a report from the Philippines onpreparations for the 27th ASEAN-Australia forum the nation will hostin March.

Officials touched upon other issues suchas scheduling operation programmes for the bloc in 2015, theorganisation of the 6th ASEAN Maritime Forum and the 4th ExpandedASEAN Maritime Forum in 2015, the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting onTrans-border Crimes, and a ministerial meeting on the increase ofviolence and radicalism.

The 4th ASEANCoordination Council Working Group is scheduled to take place in theafternoon of January 27, discussing the association’s post-2015 vision.-VNA