ASEAN Lecture Series: Post-2015 Vision for the ASEAN Community

On 31 December this year, ASEAN will officially declare the formation of a community. Nevertheless, work on the ASEAN Community will continue and the ASEAN Leaders are expected to adopt the recommendations of the High Level Task Force on the Post-2015 Vision for the ASEAN Community to drive the community-building process forward. What are ASEAN’s trajectory and plans for the further deepening of the ASEAN Community? Will the Post-2015 Vision be enough to help ASEAN keep pace with the rapid global developments? How will the ASEAN Community impact the region’s relationships with the other countries that have a strong presence in the region? This lecture will feature insights and assessments of ASEAN’s strategic vision and priority areas for the next phase of community-building. Both speakers, Ambassadors Sihasak Phuangketkeow and Ong Keng Yong served on the High Level Task Force and will share with us their views on ASEAN’s vision for the immediate future.

Ambassador Sihasak Phuangketkeow is Ambassador at the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. He was previously Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had also served at the Thai Embassies in Washington DC and Tokyo, and as Thailand’s Consul-General in Hong Kong. In 2007, he became Thailand’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva. Between 2010 and 2011, he was President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. He has also been an active contributor to the work of ASEAN, serving as Thailand’s Senior Officials Meeting Leader to ASEAN in 2006-7, and again since 2011. He was also Chair of the High-Level Panel on an ASEAN Human Rights Body that drafted the Terms of Reference establishing the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.

Ambassador Ong Keng Yong is Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is also Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, non-resident High Commissioner to Pakistan, and non-resident Ambassador to Iran. Mr Ong also serves as Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation. Mr Ong was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from 2011 to 2014, and served as Secretary-General of ASEAN, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, between 2003 and 2008. Mr Ong holds a LLB (Hons) from the then University of Singapore and a MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, USA.