Heads of delegations pose for a photo at the 18th ASEAN Political-Security Community Council Meeting in Singapore on November 13 (Photo: VNA) Singapore (VNA) – The ASEAN Political-Security Community Council(APSC) and the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) convened their meetings in Singaporeon November 13 to review the grouping’s cooperation, and complete reports anddocuments to be submitted to the leaders.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh led a Vietnamese delegationto the events.
In his opening speech, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakishnan stressedthat the regional and international situation continues to see rapid andprofound changes, with increasing competition, political and economicinstabilities. Therefore, ASEAN should maintain solidarity, strengthen cohesionand cooperation, and continue efforts to effectively realise the ASEAN CommunityVision 2025 in parallel with dealing with emerging challenges.
Regarding political-security collaboration, the APSC acknowledged the positiveoutcomes in the implementation of the ASEAN Political-Security CommunityBlueprint 2015, with 255 out of 290 lines of actions fulfilled or 88 percent,he said.
Many cooperation areas have seen strong progress such as diplomacy, defence,justice, cyber security, and fight against terrorism and extreme violence, thuscontributing to ensuring peace, security, stability and cooperation as well asbuilding trust in the region, he added.
Notably, the countries also spoke highly of cooperation contents that bring practicalbenefits to residents, including consular support for ASEAN citizens in a thirdcountry and humanitarian assistance in case of natural disasters.
On the regional and global situation, the countries reaffirmed the importanceof maintain and promoting peace, stability, security, safety and freedom ofnavigation and overflight in the East Sea, and maintaining solidarity andcommon voice of ASEAN, while boosting the full and effective implementation ofthe Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards the earlyconclusion of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
Addressing these meetings, Deputy PM Minh acknowledged progress made in the buildingof the ASEAN Community and the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision2025 over the past time. He proposed the ASEAN countries continue to enhance solidarityand self-resilience, as well as stay persevering with traditional principlesand methods while being flexible and creative in dealing with arising challenges.
Minh also noted that ASEAN needs to focus on ensuring regional peace andsecurity, and maintaining its central role, as well as continue to reformprocesses and procedures, improve capacity in responding to emergencies, andincrease coordination among agencies.
The Vietnamese official stressed that ASEAN should persistently pursue agreedprinciples, make efforts to ensure peace, security and stability in the EastSea, abide by international law, exercise self-restraint, not militarise andtake actions to complicate the situation, vow to address disputes via peacefulmeans on the basis of international law, fully and effectively implement theDOC and soon reach the more effective COC.
The APSC and ACC meetings are part of a series of events in preparation for the33rd ASEAN Summit and related meetings, scheduled to open onNovember 13’s afternoon.-VNA
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