Senior Officials’ Meeting (ACD SOM) On the Sidelines of the 70th Session of the UNGA

On 30 September 2015, Mr. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Director-General of Department of International Economic Affairs and Thailand SOM Leader chaired the Asia Cooperation Dialogue Senior Officials’ Meeting (ACD SOM) on the sidelines of the 70th Session of the UNGA at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Twenty-one representatives from the Member States as well as Mr. Bundit Limschoon, Secretary General of the ACD Provisional Secretariat, were present at the Meeting.

The Meeting witnessed the transfer of Chairmanship from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Thailand for the upcoming year (September 2015–2016). In his statement, Mr. Gongsakdi extended appreciation to Saudi Arabia for her contribution as past ACD Chair. He informed the Meeting of the Nepali request to join ACD as its 34th Member State. Thailand also conveyed to the Meeting her intention to host the 14th ACD Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok during the first quarter of 2016.

High on Thailand’s agenda were the advancement of ACD cooperation in all dimensions, particularly the ACD Regional Connectivity and ACD Vision 2030 Initiatives. Thailand hopes that the two important documents drafted by the Thai side, namely the Tentative Road Map on ACD Regional Connectivity and the Concept Paper on ACD Vision for Asia Cooperation 2030 will be considered by the Member States and become outcome documents of the 2nd ACD Summit in Thailand in the last quarter of 2016. Member States also took note of the progress report from the ACD Secretariat.