ASEAN foreign ministers, dialogue partners gather in Brunei

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Xinhua) - The unity of the-10 nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to be under spotlight again this weekend as its foreign ministers and their counterparts from dialogue partners gathered in Brunei.

The foreign ministers of ASEAN member states as well as ASEAN's ten dialogue partners and other nations are expected to have discussions on issues such as regional cooperation and integration, security, the management of maritime disputes as well as transboundary haze.

The 46th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of the oil-rich Sultanate, is expected to focus on the progress of implementing the decisions for the ASEAN summit earlier this year, including matters related to the Roadmap for an ASEAN community, ASEAN's future direction and ASEAN's external relations, according to ASEAN secretariat.

"We are working on efforts to build a resilient, dynamic and sustainable community by 2015 and the potentials for strengthening coordination and collaboration between ASEAN and dialogue partners in working towards mutual understanding, political dialogue and friendly cooperation," ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh said in a statement.

The ASEAN Foreign Minister's Meeting will be followed by Post Ministerial Conference, the 20th ASEAN Regional Forum and the 3rd East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

The meetings are expected to provide platform for officials of major countries, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, to discuss issues like Syria and denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.

"The ASEAN Regional Forum is one of those forums where all participating countries are sitting around the table," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters on Saturday.

The unity of the 10-nation bloc was questioned last year after the Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Phnom Penh failed to issue a joint communique as the Philippines tried to push for contents on its territorial disputes with China in South China Sea to be included in the statement.

ASEAN leaders have since called for the centrality of ASEAN in the regional cooperation to be respected.

"Let's hope this time around we will have a more quiet meeting than we had last year, and I am not pessimistic," Marty said.

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