President Thein Sein departed for Brunei on Tuesday, where he will attend the 23rd Asean Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan as Burma prepares to take over the regional bloc’s chairmanship next year. Burma, which joined Asean in 1997, will take the rotating leadership post for the first time in 2014, and Thein Sein will symbolically receive the Asean chairmanship gavel from the current chairman, the sulatan of Brunei, this week at the annual summit. Thein Sein is accompanied on his trip by Union ministers Wunna Maung Lwin, Soe Thane and Kan Zaw, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.