Declaration of the Special ASEAN Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The Declaration of the Special ASEAN Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was adopted by the leaders of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 14 April 2020.

The video conference was chaired by Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Viet Nam, in his capacity as Chair of ASEAN.

ASEAN includes the countries in the BIMP-EAGA subregion.

The leaders agreed on the following seven measures as ASEAN's collective response in addressing the pandemic:

(i) Further strengthen public health cooperation measures to contain the pandemic and protect the people.

(ii) Prioritize the well-being of peoples and provide appropriate assistance and support to the nationals of ASEAN Member States affected by the pandemic in each other’s country or in third countries.

(iii) Enhance effective and transparent public communication involving multiple forms of media.

(iv) Reaffirm the commitment to take collective action and coordinate policies in mitigating the economic and social impact from the pandemic, safeguarding the people’s well-being and maintaining socio-economic stability.

(v) Stress the importance of a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral, and comprehensive approach by ASEAN to effectively respond to COVID-19 and future public health emergencies.

(vi) Task Economic Ministers and Senior Economic Officials to explore an arrangement to preserve supply chain connectivity, particularly among ASEAN Member States.

(vii) Support reallocating existing available funds and encourage technical and financial support from ASEAN’s partners to facilitate cooperation against COVID-19, including the proposed establishment of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund.

Source: ASEAN.org