ASEAN summit concludes with 'fruitful' outcomes despite global challenges

JAKARTA - The 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit concluded here on Thursday with a series of outcomes despite rising uncertainties globally.

"Within three days, 12 summits have been held, resulting in 90 outcome documents and a number of concrete agreements with partners," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said while addressing the closing ceremony of the summit.

"ASEAN's big duties will not finish in only one chairmanship. We will continue to face the complexity of global challenges," the president said.

Indonesia handed over the ASEAN chairmanship for 2024 to Laos at the closing ceremony.

"We must hand in hand navigate the challenges to be opportunities, navigate the rivalries to be collaborations, navigate exclusivity to be inclusivity and navigate differences to be unity," Widodo said.

During the summit, ASEAN members reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen ASEAN as an organization that is robust and agile, equipped with strengthened capacity and institutional effectiveness.

Numerous documents have been adopted at the summit, including the ASEAN Concord IV and ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on ASEAN as Epicentrum of Growth.

The summit under Indonesia's ASEAN chairmanship this year is themed "ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth."

Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.