KIEV, November 9. /TASS/: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has arrived in the Cambodian capital to take part in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Wednesday.
"Dmitry Kuleba has arrived in Phnom Penh as part of the first-ever visit of a Ukrainian foreign minister to Cambodia. Ukraine will participate in the ASEAN summit for the first time. ASEAN is a powerful association of ten countries in Southeast Asia. Ukraine will be the first Central European country to join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia," Nikolenko wrote on Facebook (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation deemed extremist by Russian authorities).
On November 8-13, 2022, the 40th and 41st ASEAN summits are scheduled to be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The conference’s main topics are food and energy security, rising global inflation, and the recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision to form the organization was made at a conference in Bangkok (Thailand) on August 8, 1967, by the five countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines - which signed the ASEAN Declaration (known as the Bangkok Declaration). The association’s declared aim was cooperation in the economic, social and cultural fields, as well as the promotion of peace and stability in Southeast Asia. Later, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia also joined ASEAN. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia is among the documents that constitute the legal basis for the relationship between the countries of the association.
