ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan and his three deputies were busy in Vietnam with a series of meetings on the threshold of the country taking over the grouping’s presidency as of January 1, 2010.

On December 23, the ASEAN chief met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

In all these meetings, Pitsuwan expressed strong support in Vietnam’s considerable contributions to the ASEAN development and in implementing the regional objectives based on the country’s political stability, dynamic economic growth and increasing prestige in the international arena.

He advocates orientations and priorities Vietnam has drawn out for its year-long presidency, saying they meet the ASEAN’s key targets and would certainly contribute to a stronger ASEAN community.

Pitsuwan pledged to support and work closely with Vietnam in 2010 to make its presidency successful.

His pledge received positive response from Vietnam as its Government leader, Nguyen Tan Dung, vowed to work with other member countries to build a constantly growing ASEAN and expand cooperation between the block and other countries.

“Vietnam is ready to take charge in its role as the ASEAN President,” confirmed the Prime Minister.

He added 2010 would be an important transitional year of the five-year roadmap to turn ASEAN into a powerful community by 2015 based on the three pillars: political-security, economic and socio-cultural.

Priorities Vietnamese leaders reported to the ASEAN chief included the tasks of strengthening solidarity and alliance among the ASEAN and working closely with other member countries to discharge programmes and plans of cooperation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem made it clear in a separate meeting that Vietnam would prioritise further dialogues and cooperation in the fields of mutual concern and strengthen mutual understanding and trust among member countries.

Khiem pointed out the need to promote ties among dialogue partners and improve the efficiency of ASEAN programmes of cooperation and relevant forums such as the ASEAN plus 1 and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

He added that the other highly prioritised task is to narrow the gap among ASEAN members through effectively implementing the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) working plan.

“They are top priorities in the interest of peace, stability and development in the region as well as in an effort to cope with numerous challenges coming from economic crisis, climate change, natural disasters, epidemics, terrorism, trans-national crimes and security in the sea,” Khiem concluded.

The Vietnam Presidency Year will kick off with already scheduled conferences including the ASEAN Ministerial Conference, a conference of the ASEAN Political-Security Community and the Conference of the ASEAN Coordinating Council, to take place in the central city of Danang from January 13-14.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand./.