The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has announced that the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM13), which Cambodia is slated to host, will take place in November of this year via video conference.
The announcement followed the ASEM Senior Officials’ Meeting (ASEM-SOM) co-chaired by Cambodia and the EU by video conference on July 7-9.
The meetings were attended by 51 senior officials from ASEM partner countries as well as representatives from the EU, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Asia-Europe Foundation.
Luy David – secretary of state for the foreign ministry and the ASEM-SOM point person for Cambodia – officially confirmed that the ASEM13 meeting would be held virtually on November 25-26, according to the ministry’s press release on July 13.
The press statement cited Covid-19, which it said was still spreading with the emergence of new variants creating a wave of new infections in many countries around the world including Cambodia, as the reason for the move.
It said the decision was made in accordance with the recommendations of the national committee for combating Covid-19, which said a physical summit is neither safe for ASEM leaders to attend nor practical amid the ongoing outbreak.
Full article: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/asem-meeting-be-held-virtually-november-25-26
