The first meeting of the China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Eminent Persons Group ended Friday in Qingdao, a coastal city of south China's Shandong Province.
Participants at the two-day meeting, including Chinese celebrity and former foreign minister Qian Qichen and other eminent persons from 10 ASEAN member countries, looked back on the progress made in the China-ASEAN dialogue process started 14 years ago, and conferred on the current situation and future prospects of the Sino-ASEAN relations.
"The meeting was fruitful," according to sources with the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
During the meeting, a primary framework of the report on the eminent persons group was made, and all participants decided through discussions to hold the second meeting of the eminent persons group in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, in October.
The eminent persons group, initiated by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during the eighth China-ASEAN summit meeting in Laos last year, was formed with the aim of evaluating China-ASEAN cooperation in the past 15 years, offering proposals on future cooperation and delivering reports to this year's China-ASEAN summit meeting.
(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2005)
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