Deputy PM to attend 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Laos

Vientiane (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh will attend the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and related meetings in Vientiane, Laos from July 23-26.

He is also due to attend the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC)+1 sessions with dialogue partners, the 17th ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting with Northeastern Asian countries, the sixth East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (EAS FMM-6) and the 23rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), together with his counterparts from 10 ASEAN countries and 17 partners outside the region.

The Vietnamese delegation attends the above meetings in an active and responsible manner and stick to the principle of flexibly and deftly settling complicated issues on the basis of ensuring regional solidarity and consensus and suiting Vietnam’s interests.

Vietnam’s aim is to continue contributing to enhancing ASEAN’s cooperation, unity and central role, particularly strengthening practical ties between ASEAN and partners, and improving the efficiency of regional forums in which the group plays a crucial role as well as intensifying ties between Vietnam and countries.

The ASEAN meetings with 10 major partners, including China, the US, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and Canada, as well as the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting, the ASEAN Regional Forum and EAS founded by ASEAN are the most important meetings of the bloc this year, covering political-security, economic and socio-cultural aspects.

The AMM-49 will focus its discussions on internal collaboration, Community building as well as ASEAN’s external relations, including accelerating the implementation of the Master Plan on the Vision 2025 of the ASEAN Political-Security Community, increasing ASEAN’s central role and improving its apparatus, and examining the ASEAN Charter.

The meeting will also consider proposals of Timor Leste to join the bloc and other countries which want to join the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation or become ASEAN’s official partners.

The ASEAN Ministerial Meetings with partners are scheduled to review ties between ASEAN and countries over the past time and orientations in the future, including preparations for the ASEAN+1 Summit slated for September in Laos.

Laos will issue the Chairman’s Statements on ASEAN relations with partners.

ASEAN and Chinese foreign ministers are likely to deliver a joint statement on the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).

The ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea is to review the implementation of the 2013-2017 Working Plan and preparations for a new working plan for the next period, the ASEAN+3 Summit slated for September during which the Declaration on sustainable development proposed by Laos will be adopted.

The EAS FMM, meanwhile, is to debate the evolving regional architecture and the EAS’s role, the implementation of the Declaration commemorating the 10th anniversary of the EAS, preparations for EAS meeting this September during which the EAS Declaration on denuclearisation, the Vientiane Statement on promoting infrastructure proposed by Laos, the EAS’s Declaration on preventing the popularisation of nuclear weapons and the EAS’s Statement on immigrants and human trafficking will be passed.

The ARF will review measures to build trust and preventive diplomacy, adopt the list of activities for 2016-2017 and future orientations.

Other regional and global issues of shared concern, including the East Sea issue, the Korean peninsula, terrorism and extreme violence, human trafficking, and abnormal immigration, will also be put on the table.-VNA