Bangkok15 - 17 Feb 2017

EVENT REPORT |

The Secretariat of the Pinnacle Club of Asean and the US-China Sanya Initiative agree to explore the development of a cooperative relationship to promote friendship and friendly dialogue in the region 

Since 2014, The Pinnacle Club of Asean (The Club) has served as a social platform to bring together retired military and police chiefs to maintain the camaraderie fostered during their professional military careers towards the aim of promoting the good relations within Asean. Currently, The Club has around 60 members from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Recognizing the possible synergies and overlapping interest of the US-China Sanya Initiative which regularly brings together retired U.S. and Chinese senior generals and admirals in order to build stronger military-to-military ties between the two countries, The Secretariat of The Club hosted the EastWest Institute (EWI) and the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) of the US-China Sanya Initiative to a cooperation planning session in Bangkok, Thailand from 15 February to 17 February 2017.

Over the course of the event, the participants and observers carried out substantive and open discussions on the possible areas for collaboration and dialogue. All parties agreed that building trust through friendships will be crucial in the development of complimentary channels of communication between Asean, US and China. To this aim, The Club, EWI and CAIFC agreed on a broad set of principles for joint activities and the secretariats will work towards organizing a joint event in Beijing, New York or Southeast Asia later this year.

The delegations were also hosted to dinner by GEN (Ret’d) Mongkon Ampornpisit and The Chaturamit Mongkon Elite Group, an association of retired Thai defence and police commanders, at Lakewood Golf and Country Club on 16 February 2017. Through a night of social interaction, new friendships were forged and old ones strengthened.