PH Pays Tribute to Late ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan

30 November 2017 — The Philippines today paid tribute to former Thai Foreign Minister and ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan who passed away due to acute heart attack on Thursday.

In a statement from Hong Kong, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano recalled Secretary General Pitsuwan's significant contributions to ASEAN.

“He will be forever remembered for his efforts in strengthening the capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat as the nerve center of ASEAN during his term as ASEAN Secretary-General."

The Secretary also noted Secretary General Pitsuwan's considerable success in raising public awareness of ASEAN's contributions to peace and prosperity. 

"He was eloquent and was able to explain ASEAN’s efforts in community building with ease both to ordinary people and ASEAN external partners,” Secretary Cayetano said.

Pitsuwan spoke at the High-Level Forum on ASEAN @ 50 in Manila last month, as part of the Philippine hosting of the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Summits.

In his remarks at the Forum, he outlined a vision for ASEAN for the next 50 years and where he challenged the Association to "unleash the creativity, the power of 640 million people onto the platform of ASEAN."

Surin Pitsuwan was Thai Foreign Minister from ‎1998-2001, and served as ASEAN Secretary General from 2008 to 2012. END