CANADIAN Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has asked the Philippines, as this year’s chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to become a member of the Asean East Asia Summit and the Asean Defense Ministers Meeting Plus.
In an interview, Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar confirmed that President Rodrigo Duterte had invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Union President Donald Tusk as his guests at the East Asia Summit in November.
But the 10 members of Asean must agree before a country can become a member, Bolivar said.
“We are keen to make the ties between Asean and Canada stronger,” Freeland said in her statement during the Post Ministerial Conference plus one.
“We hope one day that we will be able to join the East Asia Summit and the Asean Defense Ministers Meeting Plus,” she said.
Canada has been seeking to join EAS and ADMM Plus since 2012.
The ADMM-Plus countries include the 10 Asean members, namely, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and eight Plus countries, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russian Federation, and the United States.
Freeland said Canada has pledged to provide a $10-million scholarship program for Asean students and professionals in the next five years as a way of strengthening people-to-people ties with the regional bloc.
“This program will be open to all Asean countries. It will equip students and mid-career professionals with a particular focus on women to provide them critical knowledge and skills to help them contribute in the fight against poverty,” Freeland said in her opening remarks during the Asean- Canada Ministerial Meeting held Sunday at the Philippine International Convention Center.