As part of its participation in the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the Ministers of the Pacific Alliance met on Monday 28 with their counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to strengthen the link between the block with the Asia Pacific.
The first meeting took place in September 2014 at the last General Assembly of the United Nations. On that occasion a space for dialogue and mutual understanding was opened and a reflection on the possible topics and initiatives of an agenda for joint work between the Pacific Alliance and ASEAN began.
Also in May 2015 Ambassadors and Representatives of the Pacific Alliance and the Permanent Representatives Committee of ASEAN met in Jakarta, Indonesia to define the issues of the agenda of the initial work, such as energy and minerals, trade facilitation, innovation , logistics, infrastructure and SMEs.
On this occasion, the Ministers of the Pacific Alliance and ASEAN presented the advances that have obtained both integration mechanisms and agreed to promote closer economic cooperation to facilitate trade and investment flows between the two regions for mutual benefit .
In order to strengthen and implement cooperation between the two mechanisms, the ministers agreed to establish a working group composed of foreign relations of the Pacific Alliance and delegates of the Standing Committee of Representatives of ASEAN.
ASEAN is comprised of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. They are observer states of the Pacific Alliance Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
