With reference to the Statement of the Special ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) held on 14 April 2020, the APT leaders strongly recommended a utilisation of APTERR to ensure food security in the region during an emergency caused by the catastrophic outbreak.
In response to this, the APTERR Secretariat totally supports the said recommendation as it complies with the fundamental objectives of the establishment of APTERR to meet emergency requirement and achieve humanitarian purposes.
We reaffirm our cooperation to strengthen food security in the region through a full utilisation of the APTERR programmes for the COVID-19 pandemic, which is considered as an emergency in line with the APT’s recommendation, for mitigating the food emergency situation and quickly assisting affected people, especially the poor and vulnerable groups.
We also reiterate a significance of realising the existing APTERR mechanism as one of preferred options to safeguard food supply and reduce uncertain impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The APTERR Secretariat commits to continually promote the full utilisation of the existing APTERR mechanism for strengthening food security in the member countries to make sure that no one is left behind during this unprecedented crisis.
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