At the meeting (Photo: asean.org) Jakarta (VNA) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Italy recently convened the first meeting of the ASEAN-Italy Development Partnership Committee (AI-DPC) in the form of a videoconference. The event marked the launch of ASEAN-Italy formal partnership where both sides identified a number of projects and programmes of mutually beneficial cooperation. Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Economic Community Satvinder Singh co-chaired the meeting with Ambassador of the Italian Republic to ASEAN Benedetto Latteri. At the meeting, Italy announced its intention to contribute 2.5 million EUR to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund to support ASEAN’s response to the pandemic.