Aquino meets with Thai PM

By Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News

Posted at 10/28/2010

HANOI—President Aquino met with Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in a bilateral meeting ahead of the opening ceremony of the 17th ASEAN Summit.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said the two leaders agreed that the central banks of two nations should discuss ways on how to address the strengthening of their local currencies against the dollar that has adverse affects on the countries’ exports sectors and migrant workers.

Both leaders also discussed disaster risk reduction and management.

Carandang said the two leaders also agreed that Myanmar should follow the roadmap to democracy.

Carandang would not say if the Philippines would explicitly call for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release in one of Aquino’s speeches here.

Yesterday, Aquino said he would discuss Suu Kyi’s plight in one of his messages.

“We will just remind them of certain promises that were made quite a number of years back,” Aquino told reporters.

“We have been championing the cause of Madam Aung San Suu Kyi for a very, very long time. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of our own people power revolution wherein by (the very well of God—not sure here), we succeeded in a transition that is relatively peaceful. So the basic premise is stability of the member states of the ASEAN leads to the stability within ASEAN,” Aquino said.

Meantime, foreign ministers of the member states of the ASEAN signed the Declaration on Cooperation in Search and Rescue of Persons and Vessels in Distress at Sea allowing mutual assistance among member states during time of distress at sea upon request.

In the summit, the Philippines is expected to push for the country’s interests in economy, political and security cooperation, food and energy security, human rights and disaster management.

Aquino noted ASEAN nations have common problems that affect the entire region, such as global warming and piracy. He said the Philippine economy is in large part dependent on the economies of ASEAN nations.

The President said the Philippines could tap on the strength of regional cooperation to address some of the country’s problems, like mitigating disasters.

“So we expect that after this ASEAN summit, there will be more concrete steps towards harmonizing and really unifying the entire region to act as one for the continuum of the problems we all face.”