Indonesia hands over ASEAN presidency to Laos

By Esra Tekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - Indonesia on Thursday handed over the presidency of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) to Laos, as the 43rd summit of the regional bloc concluded in Jakarta.

The summit began with a meeting of foreign ministers of the member states on Monday. Regional peace and Myanmar remained high on the agenda.

To tackle the crisis in junta-ruled Myanmar, the ASEAN leaders agreed to set up a “troika mechanism” comprising the immediate past, current and incoming chairs of their regional grouping.

The summit also emphasized on creating space for dialogue to maintain peace and progress in the Southeast Asian region.

Over the past four days, the ASEAN leaders also held summits with the US, Japan, Australia, China, Canada, India, South Korea and the UN, while the 18-member East Asia Summit, which was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was held on Thursday.