A total of 21 heads of state and leaders of government will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit that will be held this November, according to Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr. on Tuesday.
One of the attendees of the ASEAN summit is the Secretary General of the United Nations, Paynor confirmed as the head of the National Organizing Committee during the Malacañang press briefing.
“We will have a total of 21 heads of state, heads of government, plus the Secretary General of the United Nations. Thus far, we have not had any indication of anyone not coming,” he said.
According to Paynor, 10 ASEAN member-states and eight members of the East Asia Summit are expected to attend.
Also, he said that ASEAN-EU and ASEAN-Canada, the two countries that were celebrating their 40th Anniversary of ASEAN collaboration will also come in the country for the summit.
“So that’s 10 ASEAN member-states, eight members of the East Asia Summit, and two others who are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of ASEAN collaboration and that is ASEAN-EU and ASEAN-Canada. So both the President of the economic community, plus the Premier — Prime Minister of Canada are also expected to arrive here,” he explained.
Meanwhile, he also mentioned that only Timor Leste will send a representative as guest.
So far, with all the preparations and a total of 282 meetings planned for the hosting of ASEAN, the head of the national organizing committee is assured that “pretty much everything is set” for the said upcoming event this year.
“Most of all, our security elements are really on their toes because that is the one area that we cannot really prepare for 100 percent. So we keep on trying,” he said. | (Tina Joyce Laceda – PTV)
