Vietnam lauds ASEAN-New Zealand strategic partnership

Vietnam highly values and welcomes the outcomes of the strategic partnership between ASEAN and New Zealand, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said at the 24th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue.
Vietnam lauds ASEAN-New Zealand strategic partnership ảnh 1Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamhighly values and welcomes the outcomes of the strategic partnership betweenASEAN and New Zealand, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said at the 24th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue held in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 21-22.  

On behalf of ASEAN member states,Dung, who is also Chair of the ASEAN-Vietnam Senior Officials’ Meeting, spokehighly of New Zealand’s role and contributions to regional defence-securityover the past years, noting that both sides need to increase collaboration to upholdthe role and increase efficiency of regional security cooperation mechanismsled by ASEAN.

He called for joint work to buildthe capacity of coping with security challenges, including preventivediplomatic measures and improvement of the capacity of law enforcementagencies, as well as maritime coordination.

Dung stressed that narrowingdevelopment gap is an important priority of ASEAN and of Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam(CLMV).

Vietnam proposed several specificmeasures and asked ASEAN partners, including New Zealand, to continue offeringtechnical and capacity building support to the bloc, so that ASEAN cansuccessfully conduct the third stage of the Working Plan of the Initiative forASEAN Integration (IAI), towards realising the ASEAN Vision 2025.

Reviewing the past bilateral tieson the basis of the ASEAN-New Zealand Plan of Action for the 2016-2020 period withthe Human Strategy and Prosperity Strategy as major strategies, both sidesexpressed their satisfaction with the growing ties, especially since theupgrade of their relationship to the Strategic Partnership level at the ASEAN-NewZealand 40th Anniversary Commemorative Summit in Kuala Lumpur in2015.

New Zealand reaffirmed theimportance it attaches to ties with ASEAN and support of the bloc’s centralrole in the evolving regional architecture.

In the face of threats to regionalpeace environment and security, including traditional and non-traditionalsecurity challenges, policy shift of major powers and the trends of tradeprotectionism and populism as well as extreme violence, the two sides emphasizedthe need for cooperation, trust building, dialogue maintenance and guarantee ofpeace, security and stability in the region.

Countries participating in theevent expressed concern about recent developments in the Korean Peninsula andthe East Sea.

New Zealand expressed support ofASEAN’s viewpoint on the East Sea and underscored the importance of maintainingpeace, stability, security, maritime and aviation safety and freedom in theEast Sea, the peaceful settlement of disputes, including respect for diplomaticand legal processes in line with international law.

On the economic front, ASEAN isnow the fourth largest trade partner of New Zealand. Both sides agreed to effectivelyimplement the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement signed in 2009on the basis of the Prosperity Strategy.

New Zealand pledged to continueassisting ASEAN member nations in realising the IAI on narrowing developmentgap and the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025.

Both sides expressed support of regionaleconomic connectivity, with immediate priorities given to early concluding theRegional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations, promoting tradefacilitation towards quality and transparent liberalisation frameworks.

On socio-cultural aspects, bothsides will continue to focus on cooperation in education, promotion of humanconnectivity and raising people-to-people exchange in line with the HumanStrategy.

ASEAN member states asked NewZealand to extend support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, whichform one of the priorities in building ASEAN Economic Community.

As ASEAN will celebrate the 50th founding anniversary this year, New Zealand welcomed the theme and sixpriorities of ASEAN Year 2017, affirming that the country is willing to supportthe process and join celebrations.-VNA
VNA

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