Wen leaves for home after visit to Singapore, attending ASEAN meetings

SINGAPORE—Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao left here for home Wednesday after an official visit to Singapore and attending ASEAN meetings.
Prior to his departure, he attended the East Asia Summit, which was focused on climate change and sustainable development. Wen made a speech over China’s stand and views on the issues. During his visit to Singapore, Wen met with Singapore President S.R. Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Wen also attended ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Plus Three Summit, ASEAN Plus One Summit, and Meeting of leaders from China, South Korea and Japan.
Besides, Wen also held talks with leaders from some ASEAN member states and leaders from other countries including South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Wen arrived here on Sunday. Earlier, Leaders from Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN plus Three) pledged Tuesday to further integration of East Asia through continued cooperation in fields of politics, economy and society.
In a joint statement issued at their annual summit held in Singapore, the Southeast Asian leaders defined the objectives and roles of the ASEAN+3 cooperation in the emerging regional architecture.
They reaffirmed a long-term goal of building an East Asian community with the ASEAN+3 mechanism as “the main vehicle” and ASEAN as “a driving force.” Having region’s durable peace and shared prosperity in vision, the leaders said they will continuously engage all interested countries and organizations during the process of building the East Asian community.
The statement said, ASEAN+3 will expand and strengthen their political and security cooperation, through developing human resources, conducting of regular security dialogue and exchanges and other capacity-building measures. In the economic and financial fields, ASEAN+3 will push forward cooperation in various sectors from economic liberalization to intellectual property rights protection.
In face of the environment challenge, ASEAN+3 leaders reaffirmed the need to take an effective approach to the interrelated issues of climate change, energy security and the environment. In the social and cultural area, the leaders said they will increase efforts in eradicating poverty, narrowing development gap and achieving the Millennium Development Goals in East Asia.
The ASEAN plus Three mechanism was established in the late 1990s, when ASEAN countries decided to enhance cooperation with other major economies of Asia. The framework, initially focusing on economic cooperation, have expanded in recent years to sectors of politics, security, culture and other areas.
Leaders from China, Japan, South Korea and the 10 ASEAN countries meet annually to discuss cooperation and major international and regional issues. Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.—Xinhua