ASEAN adopts declaration on community building to 2025

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (5th L) poses for a group photo with ASEAN members' leaders during the 18th ASEAN-China leaders' meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 21, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

KUALA LUMPUR - Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday adopted a declaration on the bloc's growth to 2025, mapping out a plan for further regional integration and community building efforts.

The declaration, entitled "Kuala Lumpur Declaration on ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together," is one of the key documents issued at the end of a two-day leaders' meeting, which has drawn leaders from ASEAN's member states and their dialogue partners -- China, South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Russia.

ASEAN leaders welcomed the formal establishment of the ASEAN Community, agreeing that this declaration as well as the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2025, the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025 and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025, constitute the ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, said the declaration.

The leaders decided that ASEAN member states and ASEAN organs and bodies shall implement the ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together in a timely and effective manner, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter.

ASEAN ministers, ASEAN secretary-general and other ASEAN organs and bodies are tasked to mobilize resources needed to implement ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, said the declaration.

The secretary-general of ASEAN is directed to monitor and report the progress of implementation to the ASEAN leaders' meeting annually, it added.

Established in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The imminent establishment of ASEAN Community on Dec 31 this year has been hailed as a milestone in the bloc's decades-long efforts to integrate and cohere.