Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and international participants at the first high-level conference on multilateral diplomacy held in Ha Noi yesterday. - VNA/VNS Photo
HA NOI (VNS) – Viet Nam wanted to play a greater role in fostering regional and global co-operation, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said yesterday.
However, he added that the nation wanted to address challenges that required countries to work together instead of acting individually.
Speaking at the first high-level conference on multilateral diplomacy in the capital yesterday, Dung said this type of diplomacy had played an important role in gaining independence.
It had also lifted the nation from an embargoed status, thus allowing it to gradually opening to the rest of the world and fulfill its development goals.
The PM said Viet Nam was an active participant in important international developments, such as ASEAN, Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the United Nations.
However, he added that more efforts and a new direction were needed to fulfill many international commitments in the years to come and engage in new trade agreements as ASEAN was set to become a progressive community by 2015.
Dung said multilateral diplomacy had also allowed Viet Nam to protect its national sovereignty as seen in recent developments in the East Sea and gain international support for its rightful cause on the basis of respect for international law.
“Global challenges are rapidly increasing and becoming more complicated as one country or a region cannot solve them alone,” he said. “These challenges include ensuring international peace and security, preventing and resolving conflicts related to economics, finance, commerce and dealing with non-traditional security issues.”
UN Resident Co-ordinator in Viet Nam, Pratibha Mehta, said terrorism, human trafficking, diseases such as H7N9 and Ebola were examples of global concerns that no country, however big or rich, could resolve single-handedly,” she said.
Mehta said Viet Nam’s inspiring story of fighting poverty and meeting the Millennium Development Goals had strengthened its position in the UN and helped the country gain the confidence of international partners.
She said countries such as Viet Nam must ensure that national policies were in tune with global norms and standards – from trade to poverty fighting, education and labour standards to migration – and involved civil society, the private sector and academia.
These standards were even more urgent as Viet Nam was negotiating important trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, said Tran Quoc Khanh, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade and head of the Government’s negotiation delegation.
International trade created pressure to increase domestic competitiveness and legal reforms and required Viet Nam to ensure favorable conditions for investment and economic growth.
Deputy Minister of Defence, Nguyen Chi Vinh, said Viet Nam had shown its strong interest in defence co-operation for peaceful purposes and a strong commitment to avoiding military measures to solve disputes.
Vinh said in an increasingly inter-connected world, sea disputes did not just involve two or more nations, but the entire international community. – VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News
