This year’s first ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM Retreat) closed in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia on Jan. 17 after two days of discussions.
The Vietnamese delegation led by the Assistant to the Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh participated in discussions in a proactive and effective manner.
At the meetings, Vinh highlighted the importance of achievements ASEAN gained during 2010, stressing the bloc needs to give priority to accelerating the building of the ASEAN Community and ensuring an environment of peace, stability and security in the region.
Vietnam emphasised the priority to build the Community as well as heightened the role of constructive, frank and sincere dialogues in the region, in order to increase understanding and build confidence.
Regarding the East Sea , countries should maintain peace, stability and fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), peacefully solving disputes in line with international law and the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, Vinh said.
ASEAN will continue to closely work with Indonesia to accelerate ASEAN cooperation that was obtained in 2010.
Indonesia Foreign Minister Mary Natalegawa said ASEAN FMs had open, frank and effective discussions on a number of important issues to the bloc’s stability and development – including a consensus view of the Myanmar situation and ASEAN policy on the nation’s development process and integration, the East Sea and acceleration of negotiations to implement the DOC, pushing up the building of the ASEAN Community by 2015, policy and way of organising East Asian Summit and ASEAN Community in a global community of nations.
Worthy of note, ASEAN member countries created a unified and stronger voice on the requirement to respect and obey the DOC. At the meeting, they praised recent developments in Myanmar, stressing the need to have new approach to the country and called to quickly lift sanctions against the country, creating favourable conditions for Myanmar’s economic development and assumption of the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014.
The FMs affirmed their consistent stance to support the resumption of six-party talks about tensions on the Korean peninsula, and the bloc’s principle to serve a central role in the EAS and protest the abuse of power of any major country.
The meeting was aware that ASEAN must unify and strongly implement comprehensive and detailed action plans along with mobilising all resources inside and outside the bloc in order to build an ASEAN Community and raise the ASEAN role and contributions to regional and international issues./.
