ASEAN summit venue changed from Bangkok to Chiang Mai

BEIJING: Thailand has changed the venue for a series of summit meetings involving the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its major trading partners in mid-December from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai for security reasons, officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that they were informed of the change of venue by Thai officials on the sidelines of the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of leaders from the two regions that began yesterday in Beijing.

Ongoing political disturbances in Bangkok, involving massive anti-government protests, have forced the change, they said.

For this year's summit meetings, scheduled for December 15-18, Thailand has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the heads of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to join a special session to discuss how to mitigate the global financial crisis.

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.