Six more countries signed the instrument of accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) here on Wednesday, bringing the number of state parties to the treaty of ASEAN to 49. Representatives from Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates inked the instrument of accession to the treaty on the sidelines of the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (55th AMM) in Phnom Penh in the presence of ASEAN foreign ministers. Speaking at the event, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who is the chair of the 55th AMM, said Cambodia was honored to host the signing ceremony, where six more countries acceded to the TAC at the same time. To date, 49 countries have joined the TAC, he said.

Such remarkably high number of parties attests to the reconnection of the importance of the TAC in terms of its fundamental objectives and principles of promoting friendly multilateral cooperation and peaceful co-existence, Sokhonn said I wish to take this opportunity to encourage all acceding parties to make their utmost efforts to deepen their friendly ties and mutually beneficial cooperation with ASEAN as an organization as well as with each individual ASEAN member state, he added. The TAC is a peace treaty signed in 1976 among ASEAN member states to establish a set of guidelines to govern inter-state relations in the region, promote perpetual peace, everlasting amity and cooperation based on mutual respect, non- interference principle and peaceful settlement of disputes. China is the first major country from outside of ASEAN to accede to the treaty in 2003. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  Enditem