The 23rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which is to kick off Wednesday, will reaffirm the goal of realizing an ASEAN Community by 2015, according to a press release by the ASEAN Secretariat Tuesday.

With two more years before the deadline, the summit will discuss ways to consolidate achievements already made so as to meet the goal of having an economically integrated, politically cohesive and socially responsible community and to ensure ASEAN's place in the international community by 2015 and beyond, it said.

During the two-day ASEAN-related summits, ASEAN leaders will meet with their counterparts and leaders of ASEAN's dialogue partners to discuss wide-ranging cooperation in the political- security, economic and socio-cultural spheres.

The summit will also see the handover of the 10-nation bloc chairmanship from Brunei to Myanmar who will assume leadership for the first time on Jan. 1, 2014.

ASEAN Secretary-general Le Luong Minh said that ASEAN, for 2014, will remain focused on expediting the implementation of the remaining 2015 targets and ensuring greater convergence of the three pillars.

By 2015 and beyond, it is ASEAN's aim to ensure not only the continuity and sustainability of the existing momentum, but also to set the foundation for such concerted progress in a more challenging environment, the release quoted the secretary-general as saying.

All leaders of the 10 ASEAN members will attend the summit themed "Our People, Our Future Together" in the Bruneian capital of Bandar Seri Begawan.

ASEAN that was established in 1967 groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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