Briefing on the 19th ASEAN/ APEC Summits and Related

This month, two meetings of great import to the region and to our country were held – one in Bali, and the other one in Hawaii. These are the recently-concluded 19th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the 19th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting.
There were also related meetings conducted along the sidelines of the APEC and ASEAN that are also important.
These meetings have attracted great attention, mainly because some of the world’s economic powers were represented in these meetings to discuss, not just regional issues, but concerns facing other regions as well.
As a founding member, the Philippines is considered to be one of the stewards of these regional bodies – a role which I hope we are able to maximize in our effort to exert a positive influence in the developments of the region.
On the conclusion of these meetings, Leaders’ Declarations have been issued, highlighting key agreements and commitments. We want to understand the work of ASEAN and APEC, and its implications to Asia and ASEAN, beyond those statements. We want to understand what these statements mean in the context of the issues facing the region, including the disputes on Spratlys, and the West Philippine Sea, climate change, disaster response, energy security, food security, among others.
It is for this reason that I have invited the DFA to conduct this briefing for us.
At this point, I wish to acknowledge the presence of our guests from the DFA:
1. Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio;
2. Undersecretary Laura del Rosario of OUIER;
3. Asst. Secretary Teresita Barsana of the ASEAN Office;
4. Mr. Joseph Gerard Angeles, Executive Director of DFA-OUIER;
5. Director Julius Flores; and
6. Director Rosanna Villamor Voogel
Thank you taking time off from your busy schedule to join us this morning.
May I request our resource persons to kindly commence their briefing. Let us begin.