On Friday, 14th December 2012, H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN held his farewell reception at the ASEAN Secretariat, after his 5-year tenure of office. As part of the ceremony he delivered a very personal farewell speech in which he pointed the following achievements of his candidature:

• Support for the acceptance of the ASEAN Charta by the member states and especially the related parliaments of ASEAN countries. He also emphasized the difficulties of convincing member countries with a distinct parliamentarian culture to agree the ASEAN Charter within an acceptable time period, for example Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.
• The improved political access of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to the international community. This opening process started in 2008 when ASEAN facilitated the access of the international community to provide disaster relief after the devastating cyclone Nargis hit the coastal part of Myanmar. This cyclone caused huge destruction and more than 138,000 fatalities. Later on, the scheduled ASEAN Chairmanship of Myanmar for the year 2013 led to negotiations within the ASEAN countries related to the democratic status of this country. Indeed this lobbying supported the transition process of Myanmar towards democratization and opening of the Myanmar government.
• Enhancing stronger cooperation amongst the member states of ASEAN on the implementation of the three pillars of ASEAN: ASEAN political-security community, economic community and socio-cultural community.

In a second speech the Deputy Head of the EU delegation to Indonesia, Mr Jan-Willem Blankert, expressed his thanks for the excellent cooperation between ASEAN and the EU. According to Mr. Blankert the improved access of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to the international community is one of the biggest achievements of ASEAN. Furthermore he emphasized his appreciation for the efforts of Dr. Surin Pitsuwan to build a solid and strong ASEAN community.

With the farewell of H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the ASEAN Secretariat will lose a charismatic and dynamic leader whose initiative contributed to the development of the association significantly. H.E. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan will resign from his office in December 2012. The inauguration of his successor will be held on January 9th in ASEAN Secretariat. The successor is not yet nominated but will rotationally appointed from the government of Singapore.