The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s new leader, former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan vowed to get the landmark ASEAN charter ratified, according to an Indonesian newspaper Tuesday.
Surin, a seasoned diplomat with years of experience in the ASEAN affairs, said he would prioritize the charter's ratification.
"We have a blueprint for the future in the form of the ASEAN Charter. It is meant to help us consolidate our core, improve our coordination, and accelerate our speed in the face of new challenges and stiffer competition," he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.
Surin, a Thai Muslim educated in the U.S., said that he would spend the first several months of his term visiting every ASEAN nation to ask their leaders and people to ratify the charter.
The ASEAN leaders signed the charter during the summit in Singapore in November last year, with all members required to ratify it within a year.
The charter, which turns the grouping into full-pledge legal entity and creates legally binding rules, needs to be ratified by all members to take effect.
In the handover ceremony here Monday, outgoing secretary-general Ong Keng Yong of Singapore said the ASEAN charter, signed during his tenure and which commits the region's disparate nations to promoting human rights and democratic ideals, would transform the bloc.
Singapore became the first ASEAN member to ratify the document shortly after its signing. The country's director general for ASEAN, Jacky Foo, handed over Monday a copy of the ratified document to Surin.
Source: Xinhua
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