Australia pledges support for ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific

Melbourne (VNA) – Australia will continue supporting the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific and working to ensure stability and peace in the region, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said.

At the plenary session of the ASEAN – Australia Special Summit in Melbourne on March 6, the Australian PM affirmed that Australia’s destiny lies in Southeast Asia more than anywhere else in the world, and Australia pledges to fully cooperate with ASEAN member states in the framework of ASEAN and through many other important forums such as the East Asia Summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

He said that the ASEAN – Australia Special Summit to commemorate 50 years of their partnership affirms the confidence in ASEAN’s central role in the region’s prosperity and security as well as demonstrates the two sides’ vision for cooperation in the next 50 years.

Positioning the ASEAN – Australia partnership will help both sides seize and shape the opportunities transforming the region to ensure ensure that their relations are a partnership for the future” which is anchored in the enduring friendship and trust, and see the ambition of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership realised in new, deeper and more diversified engagement with ASEAN, he stressed.  

He described this as a foundation for ASEAN and Australian consumers and businesses to access new products and new markets, adding the two sides could achieve the net-zero target in a way that guarantees regional energy security, protects national economic sovereignty and brings a new wave of clean energy trade and investment.

Albanese held that both sides need to work to turn the natural connections into greater practical cooperation in the areas of marine sustainability, blue economy and the security of oceans and seas.

Australia’s commitment to the future focuses on encouraging and training the next generation of emerging leaders, he said, underlining Australia’s pledge to work with ASEAN to make sure the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, equality and independence are upheld, ensuring that the region is secure, resilient, open, inclusive and prosperous.

The regional architecture, with ASEAN at its centre, has an important role to play in pursuing these goals and for promoting trust and transparency among the nations, she added./.