(VOV) – Vietnam will spare no effort in joining with other ASEAN member nations to build a strong, united ASEAN for regional peace, security, stability and development.
President Truong Tan Sang reiterated Vietnam’s consistent policy while addressing the ASEAN Secretariat in Indonesia on June 28.
ASEAN is striving to establish a united community by 2015. This vision informs of regional cooperation mechanisms across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific.
ASEAN has set a target of completing the establishment of a united community by 2015. It has proved itself part and parcel of regional cooperation mechanisms in Southeast Asia, East Asia and Asia and the Pacific at large, creating a peaceful and stable environment for common cooperation and development.
President Sang noted ASEAN’s 46-year history has taught it the value of mutually beneficial and equitable cooperation against confrontation, and solidarity and consensus against separation and imposition.
These lessons have helped the regional bloc to overcome challenges encountered during the course of its maturation, eventually uniting all 10 Southeast Asian nations under a common banner of progress and cooperation.
He stressed ASEAN’s establishment testifies to its members’ ability to move on from any historical differences and create an environment of regional amiability, increased internal connectivity, and expanded relations with non-ASEAN partners.
He described the grouping’s approval of the 2008 Charter and the 2009 ASEAN community blueprint as a strategically sound step towards ensuring the region’s integration and cooperation can meet its development requirements in the new century.
President Sang attributed ASEAN’s achievements to its foundations of solidarity, consensus, consultation, progress, and respect. The interests of each individual member state are considered in terms of common regional goals like peace and prosperity while never losing sight of the diversity of history, culture, language, political systems, and economic development levels the grouping successfully encompasses.
In the context of regional and international complexity, where opportunities and challenges are often intertwined, he called on ASEAN to honour its traditional identity, maintain its steadfastness, and proactively address emerging issues.
He urged the association to pool all the resources necessary for building the ASEAN Community by 2015 and continue along its positive march well into the next decade.
According to Sang, ASEAN should broaden its vision beyond the mere formation of the community and consider its long-term development after December 31, 2015.
He said the 600 million-strong economic community, representing a total GDP of US$2,100 billion, should maintain its dynamic growth. He welcomed efforts to expand economic, trade and investment relations, realise free trade agreements between member countries, and begin work on an FTA covering the whole of East Asia.
He threw Vietnam’s support behind the goals of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (CEPEA) — a market that includes nearly half of the world’s population and contributes one third of global GDP.
He said ASEAN should expand its role at other regional integration frameworks such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
President Sang called on ASEAN to actively promote its own value and effectiveness in fostering an environment of peace and security, highlighting regional tools such as the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ), the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the hopes for an eventual Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
He stressed the importance of marine security, safety, and freedom in the East Sea, stating its relevance to the region as a whole. ASEAN should use its influence to help realise the general principles expressed in its Six-Point Principle on the East Sea and promote trust-building and dispute resolution dialogues that accord with international legal precedents like the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and towards building the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
President Sang recognised the ASEAN Secretariat’s duties, responsibilities, and abilities and reaffirmed Vietnam’s readiness to assist the body in fulfilling its tasks.
Đăng ký: VietNam News