The delegates of the ASEAN Foundation 3rd Model ASEAN take a group photo with H.E. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, ASEAN Foundation Executive Director Elaine Tan and her team.
On 25-30 September 2017, university students from all ten ASEAN Member States gathered at the De La Salle University in Manila and simulated the various debates and processes that go into ASEAN decision making in the ASEAN Foundation 3rd MODEL ASEAN Meeting (AFMAM). This year’s theme was “Anticipating Environmental Displacement of People in ASEAN due to Global Climate Change.”
H.E. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso and the delegates of the Philippine team pose in the ASEAN way. The Philippine team was composed of university students from Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Zamboanga, Manuel S. Enverga University, Miriam College and the the University of San Carlos.
During the AFMAM, the students were briefed on what goes into negotiations during the drafting of ASEAN Declarations and Statements. On their last day, the students simulated the signing of an outcome document on the environmental displacement of people due to global climate climate change and gave brief speeches playing out their roles as Heads of their respective governments. To close the 3rd AFMAM, H.E. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN and Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN, attributed the success of ASEAN to the “constant process of listening to each other, of listening to the threats of the world around us and arriving at solutions to complex problems. This constant desire to integrate and benefit from each other’s prosperity is the source of the confidence I have that ASEAN will continue to be a stabilizing and progressive force in the region and in the world for the next 50 years.” She then expressed the hope that the students would “go back to respective countries as ASEAN’s Ambassadors to Member States and to the world, conveying the message that ASEAN will remain the true servant of the people that it serves.”
The first AFMAM was organized in 2015 by the ASEAN Foundation.
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