President U Thein Sein attends closing of 23rd ASEAN Summit, handover of ASEAN Chairmanship to Myanmar

President U Thein Sein attended the closing of the 23rd ASEAN Summit and the handover of the ASEAN Chairmanship to Myanmar held at the International Convention Centre in Bandar Seri Begawan of Brunei at 4.30 pm LST today.

Also present on the occasion were heads of ASEAN State/Government, ministers, invited guests and the ASEAN Secretary-General.

At the ceremony, the King of Brunei Darussalam made a speech and handed over the ASEAN Chairmanship to President U Thein Sein.

Speaking on the occasion, President U Thein Sein praised His Excellency the King, the Brunei government and its people for its successful steering of the ASEAN during the period of 2013. Brunei has been able to do its best for the People-Centered ASEAN which is part of the ASEAN efforts. In the international arena also, it has been able to further cement friendly ties with other countries as the ASEAN chairman and to maintain the ASEAN Centrality as well, he added.

He said that he was pleased with the accepting of the ASEAN Chairmanship from Brunei that was able to serve as role model in the march towards the ASEAN Community.

Myanmar will take concrete steps to carry out the remaining tasks of the ASEAN Community Roadmap together with ASEAN member countries while striving for the emergence of a follow-up task further strengthening the ASEAN Community, he noted.

To ensure a peaceful and prosperous community and for the community to flourish all the member countries need to be united.

Towards this end, Moving Forward in Unity, To a Peaceful and Prosperous Community was chosen as the motto of the ASEAN Chairman for 2014, he said.

The ASEAN has constantly shown the unity and will continue to maintain the fine tradition. And Myanmar attached great importance to the chairmanship as it is the first time for it after it has become ASEAN members and pledged to successfully discharge that duty, he said.

He continued that he thanked the Excellency and his people for treating Myanmar people as families since Myanmar has become ASEAN members as well as ASEAN and its partner countries that assisted in Myanmar’s nation-building endeavours.

He said Myanmar as a responsible member nation will be working hard for success of the ASEAN and expressed his belief that he will be able to successfully take the chairmanship with the help of member countries.

Afterwards, videos on ASEAN cooperation of Myanmar that will take the chairmanship was shown.