The ASEAN Charter provides for the establishment of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR), which shall be constituted by the Permanent Representatives of ASEAN Member States at the rank of Ambassadors based in Jakarta. The Chairmanship of the Committee is in line with the annual rotation of ASEAN Chairmanship.
According to its Terms of Reference (TOR) and the ASEAN Charter, the CPR covers multiple layers of the ASEAN structure. While the TOR specifies the CPR’s reporting line to the ASEAN Coordinating Council, its initiatives and recommendations also feed into policy discussions at the sectoral, ministerial and summit levels, including with ASEAN’s external partners. The CPR’s tasks may generally be categorized as follows:
- Monitoring and implementing Leaders’ decisions;
- Coordinating cross-pillar issues;
- Strengthening relations with ASEAN’s external partners; and
- Providing substantive and administrative direction and support to the ASEAN