The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will finalize a new charter later this year to lay foundation for the regional integration scheduled for 2015, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Tuesday evening.
"We are on the good track to finalize the ASEAN Charter by November, with a view to be endorsed by the ASEAN leaders at the ( subsequent) ASEAN Summit," Wirajuda said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua at his office here.
The minister said the so-called high-level task force on the ASEAN Charter had submitted the first draft at the recent ministerial meeting in Manila.
"The ministers have given guidance on how the high-level task force or the drafting group should proceed further.
"We were able at the ministerial level to settle a rather controversial issue that has not been settled at the drafting group level," he said.
The regional grouping is poised to establish the ASEAN Community -- which more or less took the European Union integration as a model -- by 2015, accordingly needs to amend the charter.
The drafting process was impeded by debates concerning contentious articles on democratic principles and the establishment of a human rights body within the proposed Charter.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Source: Xinhua
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