21 July 2008 - His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, today attended the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. Today’s event started with the opening ceremony of the Ministerial Meeting, which was officially opened by His Excellency Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore.

The Ministerial Meeting included a Retreat; a Working Lunch; and Meetings with the High Level Panel to establish the ASEAN Human Rights Body, and a Legal Experts Group.

During the course of the day, Ministers discussed outstanding ASEAN matters including the implementation of the ASEAN Charter; ASEAN’s external relations;and exchanged views on a number of regional and international developments, especially food security, energy security, and the financial global situation.

Following the Working Lunch, His Royal Highness, together with other Foreign Ministers of ASEAN, witnessed a ceremony in which the Foreign Minister of Myanmar deposited his country’s Instrument of Ratification of the ASEAN Charter with the Secretary General of ASEAN.

His Royal Highness then attended the Meeting of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free-Zone (SEANFWZ) Commission, at which Ministers reviewed the progress of the SEANWFZ Plan of Action.

Today’s meeting ended with an ASEAN press conference on the Release of the Post Nargis Joint Assessment Report.