Many countries support the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister's frank statement on the East Sea issue.
That was the emphasis of Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung on the speech of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on the East Sea issue at the ASEAN Conferences.
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| Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung - Head of SOM ASEAN Vietnam. |
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung - Head of ASEAN SOM Vietnam shared this when answering the press interview about the results of AMM-52 and related Conferences.
Deputy Minister, please give your assessment of the 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung:In general, this Conference achieved many good results, demonstrated in the following points:
Firstly, the process of building the Community continues to be promoted, receiving strong commitments from all ASEAN member countries. Most action programs and work plans are actively implemented and completed on schedule.
The countries pledged to make efforts to promote Community building on all three pillars: Politics - Security, Economy and Culture - Society.
At the Conference, many practical cooperation contents were promoted by countries such as combating marine waste, utilizing new technology, developing small and medium enterprises, enhancing business connections, training, developing human resources to adapt to the 4.0 revolution...
Second, relations between ASEAN and its partners have been strengthened. Partner countries have shown their interest and desire to further strengthen relations with ASEAN, and have put forward many new initiatives and proposals for cooperation.
Thus, it can be said that through this Conference, the role and position of ASEAN, the central role of ASEAN in the regional structure will continue to be promoted and will be especially valued by all partner countries.
Could you please tell us what are the hot issues that ASEAN Foreign Ministers and Ministers from Partner countries have discussed with each other in recent days?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung:There are many current issues that have received attention from the Ministers attending this Conference. These include issues related to the US-China trade friction, maintaining the multilateral trade system, the RCEP Agreement, and Japan-Korea trade tensions.
Regarding security, the Conference spent a lot of time discussing the situation in the East Sea, the Korean Peninsula issue, the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar, issues of counter-terrorism and combating transnational crime...
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| Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh's frank, sincere, constructive and friendly speech on the East Sea issue has received the support and sympathy of many countries. |
As you just said, the East Sea issue is of great concern to many countries, so please tell us how do countries assess recent developments in the East Sea?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung:The East Sea has always been a topic of discussion at ASEAN conferences. This time, due to recent developments in the East Sea, especially the incident of the Chinese geological survey vessel Haiyang 8 and its escort vessels operating in Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf, violating Vietnam's sovereignty and sovereign rights, it has attracted the attention of other countries.
Many Ministers expressed deep concern about recent developments in the East Sea. All countries emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, the need to comply with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), called on all parties to exercise restraint, strictly implement the DOC, and look forward to soon having a quality, effective, efficient and sustainable COC.
The speech of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh at the Conference on this issue was very frank, sincere, and in the spirit of construction and friendship. Therefore, it received the sharing and support of many countries.
How do Partner Countries evaluate the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific??
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung:This is a document that represents ASEAN's independent viewpoint on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the principles and criteria that ASEAN has identified to conduct cooperation activities in security, politics, economics and development in the Indo-Pacific region. These principles and criteria are widely recognized in the world and should be supported by ASEAN's partners.
Specific cooperation implementation in the coming time will continue to be discussed and exchanged within ASEAN.
Deputy Minister, please give your assessment of the Joint Communique of this year's Conference.?Compared to previous years, how do you evaluate this year's Joint Communique?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung:The Joint Communiqué is always the most important document of the year for ASEAN. Negotiations always take a lot of time. This time too, the countries had to spend a lot of effort, but in the spirit of goodwill, constructiveness, understanding, and sharing of mutual concerns, ASEAN has achieved a Joint Communiqué that, I believe, has good and comprehensive content, fully demonstrating the results of the ASEAN cooperation process and reflecting the issues of concern to the countries./.
