{"id":4699,"date":"2020-06-26T11:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4699"},"modified":"2020-06-26T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T03:49:14","slug":"virtual-asean-summit-kicks-off-against-a-backdrop-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4699","title":{"rendered":"Virtual ASEAN Summit kicks off against a backdrop of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PUTRAJAYA, June 26 &#8212; The 36th ASEAN Summit kicked off today, with leaders gathering&nbsp;virtually across 10 cities in the region for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ASEAN Chair for\u00a02020, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, presided\u00a0over the opening ceremony of the Summit in Hanoi, joined by other leaders\u00a0back in their own countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg\" alt=\"asean\" class=\"wp-image-4700\" width=\"494\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg 1011w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-768x437.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-176x100.jpg 176w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-350x199.jpg 350w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-800x455.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Malaysian&nbsp;delegation, led by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, joined the summit from Putrajaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also part of the Malaysian delegation is&nbsp;Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein and International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, as well as Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry&nbsp;Datuk Seri Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The opening ceremony in Hanoi, which was streamed live on Facebook among others, included traditional performance and the ASEAN anthem choir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Xuan Phuc, in his opening remarks, welcomed the leaders to the Summit and highlighted the region&#8217;s positive results in COVID-19 management through the spirit of unity shown by member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;ASEAN has taken timely actions as&nbsp;a responsive and&nbsp;cohesive&nbsp;community. Our health emergencies\u2019 response network and cooperation with&nbsp;partners were activated from the very first days. ASEAN&nbsp;countries have engaged in active information sharing in coordination and&nbsp;disease control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Thanks to the highest political commitment and cohesive comprehensive approach at the national and&nbsp;regional level, ASEAN as a whole has embodied the fortitude of an ignited cohesive group full of sharing and caring,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 1967, ASEAN comprises 10 countries \u2013 Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/news.php?id=1854598\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PUTRAJAYA, June 26 &#8212; The 36th ASEAN Summit kicked off today, with leaders gathering&nbsp;virtually across&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",1011,575,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a-768x437.jpg",640,364,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",640,364,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",1011,575,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",1011,575,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",1011,575,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",1011,575,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/60e6fc3f9c295455a1e4d56a4393f66f5ef563f23603a.jpg",720,409,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=14\" rel=\"category\">Asia<\/a>","tag_info":"Asia","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4701,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4699\/revisions\/4701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}