Da Nang (VNA) - Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet and Owen Jenkins, Director General for Indo-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the UK, co-chaired the 4th ASEAN-UK Senior Officials’ Meeting (AUKSOM) in the central city of Da Nang on April 10.
Jenkins, who is also ASEAN SOM leader of the UK, affirmed the UK's strong commitment and priority to ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific region, stressing that the UK supports ASEAN's central role and stands ready to assist the group in implementing the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and its strategies on politics-security, economics, culture-society, and connectivity.
He proposed expanding the areas, mechanisms, levels of cooperation to allow the UK engage more deeply in regional cooperation, positioning itself as a consistent and reliable partner of the bloc.
As the coordinator of dialogue relations, Viet, who is also head of the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) delegation of Vietnam, highly valued the role of the UK - a member of G7 and G20, in regional cooperation.
He suggested key areas for future cooperation between the two sides, including promoting trade, investment, digital transformation, renewable energy, connectivity, and energy connectivity, affirming that ASEAN will closely cooperate with the UK in developing documents that will guide cooperation between the two sides in the coming time.
The Vietnamese official also called on the UK side to support initiatives proposed by Vietnam in its role as Chair of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Task Force to implement the IAI Work Plan in 2021-2025 and the new 2026-2030 work plan.
Delegates highlighted impressive progress of the ASEAN-UK dialogue partnership over the last four year, noting that the UK has proven to be one of ASEAN's leading dynamic partners, with a range of projects, programmes, and cooperation plans that have already yielded positive results.
They underlined the need for the two sides to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, market access, supply chain stability, business development, education, healthcare, and expanding into new areas such as innovation, digital transformation, and green transition.
The countries also agreed to expand cooperation in addressing emerging non-traditional security challenges, such as online fraud, online gambling, and money laundering.
ASEAN countries urged the UK to continue enhancing maritime cooperation and support ASEAN in fulfilling commitments related to climate change response, energy transition, green and sustainable development, narrowing development gaps, and promoting subregional development.
Regarding international and regional issues of common concern, the countries committed to working together to promote a transparent, reliable, predictable, and rules-based multilateral trade system.
The same day afternoon, Vietnam and the UK co-chaired the ASEAN-UK Connectivity Dialogue, which focused on two main areas of financial services and creative economy. This is an important step in implementing the ASEAN-UK Foreign Ministers' Joint Statement on Connectivity in adopted in 2024.
The dialogue was the final event in a series of ASEAN activities hosted by Vietnam from April 8-10 in Da Nang./.
