By Bernama,
Jakarta : The Indonesian government and House of Representatives (DPR)’s Commission-I overseeing foreign, defence and information affairs, will discuss the ratification of the ASEAN Charter next week, Indonesian national news agency, ANTARA, reported.
“It (discussion) was scheduled on Monday (Sept 8), but we still maintain contacts by phone, so there is no fixed date yet,” foreign ministry’s spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said here Friday.
Faizasyah said the ASEAN charter discussion will be carried out behind closed doors.
The discussion on the ASEAN charter was considered rather late in Indonesia as it is approaching the ASEAN summit which was scheduled to be held in Thailand at the end of this year.
ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ASEAN charter was signed by heads of the ten members of ASEAN during the ASEAN summit in Singapore in 2007 and all the member countries have one year to ratify it.
Three countries who have yet to ratify the ASEAN charter are Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines. The ASEAN charter contains 13 chapters and 55 articles.