The theme of this year’s summit is “ASEAN Community in a Global Community of Nations”.

After the ASEAN anthem, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono welcomed the ASEAN country leaders and partners to the summit. He said this is a historic move towards better and stronger cooperation among ASEAN members in the future.

President Yudhoyono emphasized that new transnational challenges facing countries require them to strengthen cooperation both internally among ASEAN members and with dialogue partners, as well as with countries from other regions, in order to effectively deal with conflicts and challenges related to traditional and non-traditional security, global economic instability, energy and food security, climate change, crime and terrorism.

He affirmed that, as president of ASEAN 2011, Indonesia will focus on three issues: ensuring concrete progress in developing the ASEAN Community by 2015; maintaining order and favourable conditions in the region to fulfill development goals and maintain ASEAN’s key role; and addressing the urgent need for a "post 2015 ASEAN" vision based on the “ASEAN Community in a global community of nations”.

After the opening ceremony, PM Dung and other ASEAN leaders attended the plenary session of the 18^th ASEAN Summit.

On the same day, they met with representatives from the ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) and ASEAN civil society organizations.

PM Dung will also hold bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines.