The Ambassador of the Philippines, in his capacity as Rotating President of the ASEAN Committee in Madrid outlined how, pursuant to the ASEAN Charter, the diplomatic missions of the member nations in third countries must set up a committee to promote the interests of the organisation in the host nation. That is what the five countries with embassies in Madrid have done out of the ten that form part of ASEAN. The committee in Madrid has set the target of promoting economic and cultural exchanges between the Member States and Spain, to which end they will endeavour to present the business opportunities in their respective countries to Spanish business leaders at various forums. At a cultural level, he highlighted the Cervantes Institute and Asia House and thanked them for their work.
The Ambassador of Thailand outlined the regional integration process that the ASEAN project represents, which seeks to set up an ASEAN Community as from 31 December 2015, comprising three main pillars: the Political and Security Community, the Economic Community and the Socio-Cultural Community.
Minister García-Margallo congratulated the heads of mission on having constituted the ASEAN Committee and underlined the importance given by Spain to maintaining dialogue with the various regional groups, particularly in its role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Finally, the minister invited the representatives to continue to maintain fluid dialogue with the government and to use the public diplomatic channels of the Network of Houses to make known the integration process of the countries in Southeast Asia.
EFE