Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam, Head of the Vietnamese delegation to ASEAN (Photo: VNA) The implementation of the ASEANCommunity Vision 2025 in 2016 has brought about positive outcomes, but manychallenges still lie ahead.
Initialoutcomes
Head of the Vietnamese delegation to ASEAN,Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam said the deployment of master plans across threepillars of politics-security, economics, and culture-society has made positiveprogress.
He noted that 140 out of the 290 action linesunder the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Blueprint 2025 have beencarried out while socio-cultural-economic matters have reaped productiveoutcomes.
Regarding external relations, in 2016, ASEANheld special summit with the US, and commemorative summits with Russia andChina, during which important statements and blueprints for bilateralcooperation orientations in the coming time were adopted.
Additionally, ASEAN has continued establishingcollaborative ties with new partners such as granting the Sectoral DialoguePartner status to Switzerland and the Development Partner status to Germany,while expanding the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation (TAC) for a number ofinvolved parties like Chile, Egypt, Iran and Morocco.
In 2016, ASEAN has built two crucial documents,including the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC) and the Initiativefor ASEAN Integration (IAI) for the third phrase, which were adopted at the28th ASEAN Summit.
Difficultiesand challenges
Nevertheless, in the new development period,ASEAN is encountering numerous difficulties and challenges from both inside andoutside the bloc.
The primary internal setback is to ensureeffective operation of ASEAN apparatus in increasing connectivity andcooperation among member states and with foreign partners, especially in copingwith challenges in the new situation. The coordination between agencies inimplementing programmes to build the ASEAN Community should be closer,especially in interdisciplinary fields.
The limited financial resource in carrying outcooperative projects poses a headache.
According to Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam, the ASEANmember countries are seeking appropriate measures to deal with the aforesaidproblems such as facilitating trade, investment, labour, transport andconnectivity to bring pragmatic benefits for regional people.
Current international issues, ranging fromnon-traditional and traditional security matters to protectionism,multinational disputes, and complicated developments in the East Sea arechallenging ASEAN.
Therefore, it is significant for the membercountries to strengthen solidarity and promote the central role of the bloc toincrease its position and contribute to the maintenance of peace, stability,security and development in the region.
Vietnam’scontributions
Vietnam’s contributions to ASEAN development over the past time has beenrecognised by other member states.
As an active, proactive and responsible member of ASEAN, Vietnam will be continuouslycoordinating with other countries to build the ASEAN Community across the threepillars as well as realise effectively initiatives on forging connectivity andnarrowing development gaps, which were approved by ASEAN senior officials atthe recent 28th-29th ASEAN Summits in Laos, and fully implement Vietnam’scommitments in the field.
Vietnam will partner with other ASEAN countries,including the Philippines – ASEAN Chair 2017, for activities celebrating the50th founding anniversary of the bloc next year.
Ambassador Nguyen Hoanh Nam affirmed thatVietnam will spare no effort to maintain solidarity and promote the central roleof ASEAN in tackling regional challenges to maintain peace, security andfurther deepen the relations between ASEAN and external partners.
Vietnam is determined to soundly fulfill therole as the coordinating country of ASEAN-India and ASEAN-Pacific Alliance relations and Chairof the IAI Working Group in 2017, he added./.
VNA
