The biannual gathering of leaders from all 10 of the grouping’s member states was declared opened by Thailand’s Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha.
Leading the Malaysian delegation to the summit is Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
This year’s Summit with the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability” is important because it gives Asean leaders an opportunity to review and study current issues and the Asean Community Agenda following the establishment of the Asean Community and endorsement of Asean 2025: Forging Ahead Together (Asean Vision 2025) in 2019 as well as the success of Asean chairmanship by Thailand.
This is the second and final summit hosted by Thailand as this year’s Asean Chair.
Asean chairmanship was chosen via a unique rotation system where host country is selected based on the alphabetical order.
Next year’s Asean Summits will be hosted by Vietnam.