PM Wong to visit Laos for ASEAN summits, bilateral meeting from Oct 9

VIENTIANE: Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will visit the Laotian capital of Vientiane from Wednesday (Oct 9) to Saturday to attend this year’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits and related summits.
The summits will be his first multilateral meetings with the leaders of other countries since he took office in May.
After the summits end on Friday, Mr Wong will meet with his Laotian counterpart Sonexay Siphandone, who will host him to an official dinner.
Mr Wong, who is also the Minister for Finance, will lead the Singapore delegation to the 44th and 45th ASEAN summits and related summits.
Southeast Asian leaders will review the bloc’s community-building efforts and discuss ways to create opportunities for people and businesses, especially in new growth areas such as the digital and green economies, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement on Tuesday.
They will also look to strengthen ASEAN’s role in forging an open, inclusive and stable regional architecture, it added.
“Laos’ chairmanship theme ‘Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience’ underlines the region’s substantive and forward-looking agenda to enhance ASEAN’s unity and resilience in the face of geopolitical and economic headwinds,” said PMO.
Mr Wong and his counterparts will also discuss ways to expand the bloc’s engagement with various world leaders at the 27th ASEAN Plus Three Summit, the 19th East Asia Summit and summits with Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Nations and the United States.
This year’s ASEAN-Japan Summit will be the first under Singapore’s three-year term as the country in charge of coordinating dialogue between the two sides.
Apart from his meeting with Mr Siphandone, Mr Wong and his delegation will also call on Laos’ President Thongloun Sisoulith on their final day in Vientiane.
This year, Singapore and Laos are marking 50 years of diplomatic relations, which were first established on Dec 2, 1974.
Mr Siphandone made his first official visit to Singapore in July.
Mr Wong last visited Vientiane in April this year, when he attended the ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance.
He will be accompanied on this trip by his wife Ms Loo Tze Lui and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
In his absence, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong will be the Acting Prime Minister.