Ensuring regional peace, security and cooperation is the major goal ofpolitics-security cooperation among the ASEAN nations and between thebloc and its partners.
Pham Quang Vinh, Assistantto the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of Vietnamese SeniorOfficials to ASEAN, made the comment in an article highlighting ASEAN’spolitics-security cooperation in 2010 when Vietnam plays chair of theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Politics-security cooperation is one of the three pillars in the roadmaptowards the building of an ASEAN Community. Looking back the past year,it could be seen that politics-security cooperation within the ASEANcountries and between the group and its partners were strengthened inall aspects and reaped a wide range of significant results, thuspromoting confidence building dialogues and practically contributing tothe enhancement of regional peace, security, stability and cooperationas well as to effectively coping with emerging challenges, bothtraditional and non-traditional security.
Underlining the achievements, Vinh said politics-security cooperationhas helped to further step up confidence building cooperation anddialogues for regional peace, stability and security through differentcooperation frameworks, levels and forums within ASEAN and between thebloc and its partners.
During the year, ASEANactively embarked on plans of action and cooperation programmes invarious spheres, including politics-security, increasing dialogues andconfidence building, boosting cooperative relations for mutual trust andunderstanding, and promoting the building and sharing of common conductnorms and rules based on the principle of respect for independence,sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference into each other’sinternal affairs and peaceful settlement of regional disputes.
Politics-security cooperation has helped strengthen and uphold thevalues of the existing regional cooperation agreements, mechanisms andtools designed to ensure peace and security and peacefully solvedisputes, especially the ASEAN Treaty for Amity and Cooperation (TAC),the Southeast Asian Non-nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ), theDeclaration on Conduct of Parties on the East Sea (DOC), and the ASEANRegional Forum (ARF).
The past year also saw thebuilding of new cooperation mechanisms to support the currentcooperation frameworks and dialogues for regional peace and security.The most important move was the first ASEAN Defence Ministers’ MeetingPlus (ADMM+), making it the top and regular strategic dialogue mechanismon national defence and security of Defence Ministers of the ASEANnations and key partners.
The meeting agreed to setup five working groups to promote cooperation in responding to disasters, maritime security, military medicine, counter-terrorism andpeacekeeping operations, and to organise the second ADMM+ in Bruneiin 2013.
In 2010, ASEAN also convened the firstMeeting of ASEAN Chiefs of Security Agencies (MACOSA), creating a newcooperation channel in the region to increase dialogues and sharing ofinformation about security-related issues, thereby deepening friendlyrelations among the regional countries.
The officialnoted that ASEAN has further beefed up cooperation in coping withnon-traditional security challenges, such as climate change, naturaldisasters, maritime security and safety, counter-terrorism and combatingcrimes.
Cooperation in this field among the ASEANnations and between the bloc and its partners were given top priorityand reaped more practical results. The cooperation was deployed atregional, multilateral and bilateral levels and frameworks, includingASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summit (EAS), ARF, ADMM and ADMM+ aswell as sub-regional frameworks, particularly the Mekong Sub-region andbetween ASEAN and the United Nations.
The 17 th ARFadopted a broad range of measures to enhance cooperation in naturaldisaster relief, combating terrorism and trans-national crimes, maritimesecurity, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, andpeacekeeping operations.
One of the cooperationspheres that ASEAN and its partners gave priority in 2010 was maritimesecurity, shipping security and safety, fighting piracy and preventingand mitigating maritime disasters within ASEAN as well as the frameworksof ASEAN+1, ARF and ADMM+.
Worthy of note was thelaunching of the ASEAN Maritime Forum (AMF) with its first meetingconvened in Surabaya , Indonesia , in July 2010, forming a newregional cooperation framework on sea-related issues. The bloc alsoadopted the ASEAN Declaration on Cooperation in Search and Rescue ofPersons and Vessels in Distress at Sea.
ASEAN agreedto settle arising complicated issues based on constructive dialogues,international law and the ASEAN Charter. In 2010, a number of mattersemerged in the region, including those regarding relations betweenregional nations, Myanmar issue, unrest in Thailand , escalatingtension on the Korean Peninsula .
In dealingwith such issues, ASEAN persistently advocated dialogues, confidencebuilding and peaceful settlement of disputes, firstly among concernedcountries, maintaining a favourable atmosphere for cooperation, reliableand constructive dialogues covering issues of mutual concern for thesake of regional peace, security, stability and cooperation.
Accordingly, final documents and declarations on the relevant issueswere adopted by ASEAN meetings with high consensus, especially from theconcerned parties, helping ASEAN improve its dynamic, proactive andresponsible role as well as its common voice.
The shaping of the regional cooperation architecture is of important andlong-term significance to East Asia and a matter that has attracteddifferent recommendations and opinions.
Along withstrengthening and enhancing its centrality in the region, the blocclearly demonstrated its leading role in shaping the regionalcooperation architecture in accordance with East Asia ’s features andASEAN’s interests. That is a multi-level architecture based on theexisting regional cooperation processes, in which ASEAN holds thedecisive role to strive for the shared target of regional peace,stability and development cooperation, while declining to support asingle regional architecture covering the whole Asia-Pacific region.
ASEAN encouraged the wide and deep participation, and the constructiveand positive contributions of its partners in building the ASEANCommunity as well as in dealing with regional issues of mutual concern.The grouping’s central role and ways of approach were backed and highlyvalued by its partner nations both in and outside the region.
Looking at the said-above achievements, it could be seen thatVietnam had made important contributions as a dynamic, proactive,responsible and fair-minded Chair. In its capacity as ASEAN Chair,Vietnam was able to define suitable common priorities for 2010 andeffectively coordinate operations throughout the year, in all frameworksand channels.
The achievements recorded in theimplementation of the roadmap towards the ASEAN Politics-SecurityCommunity (APSC) as well as the expansion and deepening of ASEAN’srelations with partners in all spheres resulted in the greaterefficiency in coping with emerging challenges, both traditional andnon-traditional security, and elevating the bloc’s centrality in theregion.
Vietnam proved to be an active andresponsible ASEAN Chair when the nation recommended initiatives andmeasures, and held consultations with other ASEAN members and partnersto promote confidence building dialogues, so that high consensus couldbe reached on issues of common concern, resulting in regional decisivepolicies and smooth dealing with emerging complicated matters.
Nations applauded Vietnam’s success in generating a high unanimity forthe expansion of EAS by inviting Russia and the United States toparticipate in this summit as official members, the launching andholding of ADMM+, the hosting of the first MACOSA, as well as theapproval of the ASEAN Declaration on Cooperation in Search and Rescue ofPersons and Vessels in Distress at Sea, the Plan of Action to Implementthe ARF Vision Statement to 2020 and many other documents, consideringthese important and long-term contributions to regional peace, stabilityand security./.