Ambassadors from seven countries which have representative offices in Canada, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia and Brunei, informed each other of ASEAN’s activities in recent times, including the AMM-44/PMC/ARF-18 in Bali, Indonesia.

They also discussed ASEAN’s activities in Canada, especially events to mark the 35^th anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN-Canada ties next year and meetings between ASEAN ambassadors with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird.

Canada considers ASEAN an important partner and plans to establish a development fund to support ASEAN activity in the country.

The Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is closely following ASEAN’s regional structure development, exchanging news with ASEAN on future orientations at the East Asia Summit, and preparing to join the third revised protocol draft of the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and to complete the Joint Declaration between ASEAN and Canada on Trade and Investment.

Vietnamese ambassador to Canada is president of ACO from July 1 to December 31.