Attending the flag-raising ceremony held at the Malaysian Embassy to mark the 54th anniversary of ASEAN, Kuwait’s Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ali Sulaiman Al-Saeed, expressed his keen interest and happiness in participating in the event.
Praising the strong relations between Kuwait and the ASEAN group, Minister Al-Saeed said that the relation between Kuwait and the ten-nation group has a bright and promising future. He added that there is excellent coordination in the field of combating the pandemic between Kuwait and the countries of the group at various levels. Expressing the hope that with cooperation among nations, the pandemic can be confronted and overcome, he explained that a number of ASEAN countries had provided Kuwait with a lot of equipment to confront the pandemic at its inception.
In turn, the Chairman of the ASEAN Committee, the Cambodian Ambassador to Kuwait H.E. Hun Han said that the ASEAN Community, which was established in 1967, is a large family of 650 million people with a combined GDP of over US$3 trillion, and includes 10 sister countries around Southeast Asia. He added that the countries of this group have shifted from the land of strife to the land of reconciliation, from confrontation between them to comprehensive cooperation, and from poverty to dynamic development.
Ambassador Han added that the ASEAN countries, like the rest of the world, are facing and confronting the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus and its variants. He noted that under the strong and wise leadership of ASEAN heads of state and governments, working side by side, the ASEAN group can move forward to strengthen societies. He praised the strong friendship between ASEAN countries with Kuwait in all fields, and noted that all ASEAN countries and Kuwait really need support from each other to combat the COVID-19 pandemic successfully.