Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (fifth from right) in a group photo with other leaders from ASEAN member countries (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, his spouse and a high-level Vietnamesedelegation arrived in Hanoi on June 23 afternoon, wrapping up their attendanceat the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok at the invitation of Thai PrimeMinister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
On June 22 and 23, PM Phuchad a busy schedule with diverse bilateral and multilateral activities. Thesummit was the first high-level event in the year hosted by Thailand as ASEANChair 2019.
Themed “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability”, ASEANleaders focused discussions on orientations and measures to build a sustainableASEAN Community for the people.
The membercountries affirmed the need to maintain sustainablesecurity basing on the basic principles of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperationin Southeast Asia (TAC), ensuring the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)'s central role and making orientations for the treatment of externalpartners on the basis of the documents on the ASEAN’s vision on the Indo-Pacific.
They agreedthat it is necessary to further promote intra-bloc trade and seamless ASEAN whileimplementing the ASEAN Single Window, and ASEAN Smart Cities Network as well aspromote digital economy and build a digitalised ASEAN in the Fourth IndustrialRevolution, and conclude negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) in 2019.
The ASEAN leadersdecided to select 2019 as the year of ASEAN culture to increase culturalexchanges and promote ASEAN cultural identities.
Sharing theviewpoints with other ASEAN leaders at the plenary session, PM Phuc advocatedthe theme of the summit proposed by Thailand, emphasising that the maintenanceof long-term peace and sustainable stability in the region is the first andforemost condition to ensure the bloc’s development.
He stressed thatpeace and stability do not naturally come, but require joint efforts of allmember countries to promote solidarity and build ASEAN as a reliable partnerand a strong community keeping the central role in the region.
He held that inall exchanges and actions, besides respecting diversities and differences, the ASEANis a community so it needs to heighten intra-bloc solidarity and nurture trustwith external partners.
Given complicateddevelopments and trade tensions in the region, open economies like the ASEANcountries should promote self-reliance, seize opportunities and overcomechallenges to maintain sustainable growth, he said.
The PM emphasized that the ASEAN should give priority tostrengthening intra-bloc solidarity and connectivity as well as promoting itscentral role, cooperation mechanisms and security in the region chaired and ledby the association.
The bloc should foster intra-economic linkages,make use of the already-made commitments and signed agreements, soon concludethe RCEP talks, create a favourable business environment, improve the capacityof responding to Industry 4.0’s opportunities and challenges, and connect anddevelop Industry 4.0 technological centre networks, he suggested.
Regarding the East Sea issue, the PM said the negotiations onbuilding a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) between ASEAN and China hasseen progress, towards the early completion of the document in line with internationallaw.
However, the real situation remains complicated, he said, addingthat “peace, stability, solidarity, unification and development cooperation arevalues that we had to sacrifice to have.”
In fact, it took three decades to have a 10-member ASEAN today andover half a century to build a strong ASEAN Community at present, PM Phuc said.
The summit adopted the ASEAN leaders’ vision statement onpartnership for sustainability, the ASEAN leaders’ statement on ASEAN CulturalYear 2019, and Bangkok declaration on preventing marine waste in ASEAN.
On this occasion, PM Phuc had bilateral meetings with leaders ofThailand, Singapore, Indonesia and a trilateral meeting with his Cambodian andLao counterparts to exchange a number of measures and orientations to furtherpromote the bilateral relations and address specific issues such as labour,delimitation of marine areas, and tax problems.
He also received leaders of major groups of Thailand to discussabout large investment projects applying high technology and friendly to theenvironment as well as promote the exports of Vietnamese goods.
Before wrapping up his trip to attend the 34th ASEANSummit, the PM visited the Embassy of Vietnam in Bangkok and talked with itsstaff and representatives of the overseas Vietnamese community in Thailand.-VNA
VNA
