Exerting efforts for a dynamic and effective ASEAN community

Themed ‘Turning Vision into Reality for a Dynamic ASEAN Community’, the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and related meetings recently concluded in Vientiane. The capital of Laos provided a unique opportunity this year for leaders of ASEAN countries and their major partners to make exchanges after the official formation of the ASEAN Community on December 31, 2015.

Leaders attend the 19th ASEAN-Japan Summit. (Photo: VNA)

ASEAN today has grown to become the world’s sixth largest economy with the gross domestic product (GDP) reaching US$2,430 billion in 2015 and annual economic growth at 7%. The ASEAN community has demonstrated its increasingly important role on regional and international co-operative mechanisms. The 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and related meetings bear great significance to Laos as the country is currently holding the rotating ASEAN Chairmanship in the first year after the formation of the ASEAN Community. At the opening session of the 28th ASEAN Summits, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith of Laos affirmed that ASEAN has become a region of peace and stability, and has met appropriate conditions for economic growth and development; at the same time the leader stressed that the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits were not only an opportunity for ASEAN to focus efforts on implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 as well as increasing co-operation with major partners, but also a chance to from measures to respond to the rapid and complicated change in the region and the world.

After three days of gathering, ASEAN leaders discussed the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and renewed their commitments to effectively carrying out the vision to promote the ASEAN Community. They approved the third phase of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration Work Plan and the Master Plan on 2025 ASEAN Connectivity. They also signed the ASEAN Declaration on One ASEAN, One Response: ASEAN Responding to Disasters as One in the Region and Outside the Region and other important documents to realise eight priorities of the ASEAN Chair 2016 and implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. In the President’s Declaration on the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits, the ASEAN leaders emphasised the importance of maintaining peace, stability, maritime and aviation security, safety and freedom in the region, peacefully addressing disputes on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, seriously implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and soon forming a Code of Conduct in the East Sea. They also upheld the maintenance of unity and the central role of ASEAN in relations with its partners, and in dealing with challenges while forming a law-based regional architecture. At the meetings with dialogue partners, the leaders of ASEAN and its partners of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, the US and the United Nations agreed to intensify co-operation in all fields, particularly in trade, investment, connectivity and tourism.

In a speech delivered at the plenary session of the 28th ASEAN Summit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underscored the need to enhance ASEAN’s capacity and self-reliance as well as uphold the bloc’s central role, considering them as crucial elements to ASEAN’s success.

The PM called for promoting trust-building activities, preventive diplomatic measures, ASEAN’s code of conduct, and law abidance, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, contributing to maintaining peace and security by working closely together to prevent risks of conflict in the region and cope with non-traditional security challenges, particularly terrorism and cyber security. In reference to bolstering connectivity and narrowing the development gap, he suggested developing road and railway networks, improving maritime and aviation capabilities. In the economic field, PM Phuc held that priority should be given to facilitating trade, improving the business and investment climate, developing small-and medium-sized enterprises in added value and technological sectors, increasing co-ordination in macro-economic supervision and financial-monetary stability.

On the side-lines of the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and related meetings, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc also held important bilateral meetings with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, New Zealand PM John Key, among others, contributing significantly to strengthening friendly and multifaceted co-operation with the UN and other countries.

The 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits and related meetings successfully concluded with many positive outcomes, as well as saw active and positive contributions made by the Vietnamese delegation led by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. PM Phuc’s initiatives and suggestions were highly appreciated at the summits, especially those related to the East Sea issue, as well as regional co-operation and connection. Vietnam continued to prove itself as an active and responsible member of the ASEAN community with an increasing position in the international community, and important contributions to peace, stability, co-operation and prosperity in the region and the world.

Also on the occasion, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc joined important bilateral activities with the host country in order to strengthen the special friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Laos. He met with General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and President Bounnhang Volachith on September 6.

Stressing that Vietnam always gives top priority to the special solidarity with Laos, considering this an invaluable asset in need of being preserved and developed, the Government leader pledged that he would instruct ministries, agencies and localities to continue realising high-level agreements between the two countries. He congratulated Laos, as the ASEAN Chair in 2016, on its successful organisation of the ten-member group’s major meetings, significantly contributing to the building of the ASEAN Community and maintaining the intra-bloc solidarity, for the sake of peace, stability and development in the region and the world at large.

The two sides also agreed to effectively translate the reached agreements into deeds and coordinate with each other to organise the annual meeting of the two Political Bureaus and the 39th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee later this year, along with the fourth theoretical conference between the two Parties.

(Source: NDO)