Thailand changes venue for ASEAN summit from Bangkok to Chiang Mai

BEIJING, Oct. 24 Kyodo - Thailand has changed the venue for a series of summit meetings involving the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its major trading partners in
mid-December from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai for security
reasons, Asian officials said Friday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were informed of
the change of venue by Thai officials on the sidelines of the two-day
Asia-Europe Meeting of leaders from the two regions that began Friday in
Beijing.
Ongoing political disturbances in Bangkok, involving massive antigovernment
protests, have forced the change, they said.
The annual ASEAN summit meetings involve the 10 ASEAN members -- Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam -- and major trading partners including China, Japan,
South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
For this year's summit meetings, scheduled for Dec. 15-18, Thailand has invited
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the heads of the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank to join a special session to discuss how to mitigate the
global financial crisis.
==Kyodo