Post-pandemic recovery, inflation, security high on agenda at 55th ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery, rising global inflation and regional security will be top on the agenda at the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (55th AMM) and related meetings, which will be held from Wednesday to Friday here, a senior Cambodian diplomat said on Monday.

Foreign ministry's secretary of state Kung Phoak said the 55th AMM and related meetings will be a good opportunity for foreign ministers of ASEAN and its dialogue partners to meet and discuss ways to address major challenges together for the sake of peace, stability and common development in the region and in the world.

"A number of important topics concerning regional security, peace, global issues, and ASEAN's post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery will be discussed," he said in a press briefing.

"Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also facing rising global oil prices and inflation," he added.

According to the schedule, the related meetings will include a meeting of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Commission, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Interface Meeting with ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights Representatives, the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences with ASEAN's Dialogue Partners, the 23rd ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the 12th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the 29th ASEAN Regional Forum.

"We want all of our dialogue partners to use this ASEAN forum to address key challenges together in order to reduce tensions or to build long-term peace and economic development, rather than using it to yell at each other," Phoak said.

Cambodia is the chair of the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for 2022, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.