Brudirect.com - News Headlines

BruneiDirect.Com

Asem Tackles Trade, Security
By Azlan Othman in Helsinki

Bandar Seri Begawan - His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam yesterday joined leaders from Asian and European countries and representatives of the European Commission for the two-day Asem 6 Summit at Helsinki, Finland.

The leaders will engage in an open dialogue under the overarching theme of "Global Challenges - Joint Responses".

During his stay in Helsinki, His Majesty will hold talks with President Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland and Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland, who also attended the Asian Leaders meeting.

His Majesty arrived Saturday evening at the HelsinkiVantaa airport and was greeted by Eero Hainaluoma, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Finland and Lauri Korpinen, non-resident Ambassador of Finland to Brunei based in Kuala Lumpur.

Also present at the airport was Datin Tan Bee Yong, non-resident Ambassador of Brunei to Finland; Mr. Lim Jock Hoi, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and other officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Advertisement

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

The opening ceremony on Sunday began with "Celebration of the 10 years of Asern" followed by speeches by Finland's Prime Minister, Vietnam's Prime Minister as the host of Asem 4 and Presidents of Korea and Indonesia as Coordinators of Asia and President of the European Commission as the Coordinator for Europe.

His Majesty later posed for a group photo with heads of delegation before proceeding for the first closed-door meeting.

At the meeting, Asem leaders are expected to focus their discussion on the developments in Lebanon, terrorism, avian influenza and multilateralism. Discussions at the second closed session will focus on cultural matters such as interfaith and cultural dialogues.

The leaders will discuss economic matters at the third closed session, which will cover issues such as Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and small and medium businesses. At the fourth session, discussions will be on the future direction of Asem.

Yesterday evening, His Majesty was scheduled to attend a retreat to be hosted by Mrs Tarja Halonen, President of Finland.

On Monday, His Majesty is scheduled to attend the second closed-door meeting entitled "Dialogue among Cultures and Civilisations", observe a "moment of silence" for the September I i victims, and take part in a working lunch entitled "Sustainable Development, including Environment and Energy Security".

The third closed-door meeting will focus on "Global isation and Competitiveness" while the fourth will debate the "Future of Asem".

The leaders will adopt the chairman's statement, the Helsinki Declaration, on the future of Asem and the Helsinki Declaration on Climate Change. The summit marks the tenth anniversary of the cooperation process. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Back to News Page

Write to Us

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with