Speeches, Statements & International Documents

SPEECH FOR YAB PRIME MINISTER
ON THE OCCASION OF THE SIGNING CEREMONY OF THE
KUALA LUMPUR DECLARATION ON
ASEAN 2045: OUR SHARED FUTURE
 

26 MAY 2025

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Your Majesty,

ASEAN Heads of States and Governments,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, and a very good afternoon.

1.   Today, ASEAN marks a defining chapter in its journey of regional integration with the adoption of ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future.

2.   In 1967, our founding members pledged to “bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity.”

3.   Today, we renew that solemn promise – not as a tribute to the past, but as a living covenant with the future.

4.   It is often said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. That is what ASEAN has sought to do – through decades of steady effort, shared stewardship and strategic vision.

5.   I record my deep appreciation to all who contributed to this vision, shaped by persistence, pragmatism and the quiet power of regional trust.

Your Majesty,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

6.   A decade ago, in this very city, we launched the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. That moment reaffirmed ASEAN’s role as an anchor of stability and a rising centre of economic gravity.

7.   But today, the international order is unsettled. Geopolitical tensions, economic fragmentation, climate and technological disruption are testing the bonds between nations.

8.   The years ahead will be defined by revolutions in technology and science. Our ability to lead – in artificial intelligence, digital innovation and the green and blue economies – will determine not just our prosperity, but our cohesion.

9.   Yet these same technologies carry risks. Left unmanaged, they may deepen inequality, displace livelihoods and outpace our rules. We must not only embrace innovation – we must learn to govern it, together, and with care.

10.   The future we seek must rest on foundations of sustainability and inclusion. ASEAN’s integration must be genuinely people-centred. That means closing development gaps, raising standards of living and investing in the human spirit and potential of all our citizens.

Your Majesty,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

11.   This shared blueprint gives shape to that belief. It is a vision anchored in realism, animated by resolve and made possible by trust.

12.   As we turn this page, we renew our promise – to our peoples, to our region and to the generations yet to rise.

13.   Let us move forward – with clarity in our vision, steadiness in our purpose and unity in our will – to build the ASEAN we owe to the future generations.

Thank you. Terima kasih.