Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, who led the Vietnamese delegation was speaking at the 21st ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM-21), which opened in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 14.
The two sides should give priority to boosting partnership in economics-trade,
connectivity and response to security challenges, both traditional and
non-traditional, in the region, he said.
He asked the EU to continue supporting ASEAN to build the ASEAN Community and
uphold its central role in the region while implementing the Initiative for
ASEAN Integration (IAI) on narrowing the development gap among members and
developing the Mekong Subregion (GMS), particularly regarding food and water
security.
As regards the East Sea issue, the diplomat expressed his deep concern over the
complicated developments and reiterated the common stand of ASEAN in the field.
He spoke highly of the EU’s viewpoints and asked the union to continue
supporting efforts to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea while
advocating the settlement of any dispute via peaceful means on the basis of
international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS), with respect for diplomatic and legal procedures and the
exercise of self-restraint without use of or threat to use forces whilst
implementing fully and effectively the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the East Sea (DOC) and working toward finalising a Code of Conduct in the East
Sea (COC) as soon as possible.
At the conference, ASEAN and EU foreign ministers welcomed the progress in
bilateral ties gained since the AEMM-20 in Brussels, Belgium, in 2014,
particularly the implementation of the Plan of Action in 2013-2017 to realise
the Nuremberg Declaration on an EU-ASEAN Enhanced Partnership.
The two sides agreed to strive towards elevating the bilateral relations to
strategic partnership and adopted the Bangkok statement on promoting ASEAN-EU
global partnership for common strategic goals, which set out orientations,
frameworks and solutions to enhance bilateral cooperation in significant fields.
Regarding policies and security, they agreed to strengthen collaboration to
maintain peace and security in the region and at sea, advocate the observance of
international law, and deal with non-traditional security challenges, especially
terrorism, cross-border crime, cyber security, maritime security, climate change
and natural disasters management.
On the economic front, the two sides agreed to kick-start negotiations on an
ASEAN-EU free trade area, enhance connectivity via air and sea routes, and
develop small-and medium-sized enterprises.
Pertaining to culture and society, ASEAN and EU will increase people-to-people
exchanges and cooperation on tourism, education-training, and
science-technology.
The EU pledged to work closer with ASEAN in sustainable development and continue
supporting ASEAN to build the community.
The uion also expressed its wish to participate in some regional mechanisms
which ASEAN takes a leading role.
Ministers also discussed regional and international issues of mutual concerns,
including the East Sea issue. They again stressed the need to maintain peace,
stability, safety, security, and freedom of aviation and navigation while
calling on the involved parties to exercise self-restraint, refrain from the use
of or threat to use forces and address disputes peacefully based on
international law, speficially the 1982 UNCLOS.
They declared support for ASEAN and China’s efforts to implement effectively the
DOC and soon reach the COC.
On the sidelines of the conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung had
bilateral meetings with heads of ASEAN delegations, the foreign ministers of
Finland, the Netherlands, and Latvia, and deputy foreign ministers of Spain,
Italy, Lithuania, Greece, and Austria.
The meetings focused on measures to enhance relations between Vietnam and the
countries, especially in economics, trade, investment, sustainable development,
climate change, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
Deputy FM Dung also proposed the countries actively persuade the EU to soon sign
and ratify the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement and recognise Vietnam’s market
economy status.
Currently, EU is the third biggest trade partner and the biggest foreign
investor of ASEAN. Bilateral trade reached 228.2 billion USD in 2015, making up
10 percent of the bloc’s total trade. EU also injected 19.6 billion USD in
ASEAN, accounting for 16.3 percent of total foreign investment in the bloc.
VNA