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| On August 21-22, in the heritage city of Luang Prabang, Laos, the Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM) of ASEAN, ASEAN+3 and East Asia Summit (EAS) took place under the chairmanship of Laos, the 2024 ASEAN Chair. |
The Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet, Head of Vietnam ASEAN SOM, attended the meetings.
The focus of these meetings is to discuss preparations for the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and related Summits, which will take place from October 8-11 in the Lao capital Vientiane.
As planned, the series of Summits will include about 20 activities, held at the National Convention Center of Laos, with the participation of Leaders of ASEAN countries and partners, along with many guests representing international and regional organizations.
This is the most important series of ASEAN Summits of the year, an opportunity for ASEAN Leaders and partners to exchange and make strategic decisions to consolidate the Community building process, promote relations between ASEAN and partners, as well as discuss many issues of concern both regionally and globally.
It is expected that about 80 documents will be approved or acknowledged by the Leaders. The countries highly appreciated Laos' preparation and coordination work with a huge amount of work both in terms of organization and content, affirming that they will closely coordinate with the Chair country to ensure the Conferences are successful, effective and substantive.
At the ASEAN SOM meeting , the heads of the SOM countries also spent time discussing intra-bloc cooperation, welcoming many practical initiatives of Laos such as the 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders Summit with the theme "Strengthening the caring economy and self-reliance towards the ASEAN Community after 2025", the ASEAN Forum on the Indo-Pacific with the theme "Towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030", contributing to building a self-reliant, cohesive and people-centered ASEAN Community.
Reviewing the progress of the implementation of the Roadmap for Timor-Leste to become a full member of ASEAN, ASEAN countries agreed to continue to support Timor-Leste in improving its capacity to meet the criteria set out in the Roadmap, especially in participating in ASEAN legal documents. The countries also actively exchanged many proposals to further facilitate Timor-Leste in the process of preparing for ASEAN membership.
ASEAN countries have basically completed the handover and assumed the role of coordinating relations between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners for the next 3 years (August 2024 - July 2027); preliminarily announced a number of priorities, especially exploiting new cooperation potential in areas such as digital transformation, smart agriculture, artificial intelligence, supply chain connectivity and self-reliance, cybercrime prevention, etc.
At the ASEAN+3 SOM and EA S meetings , the countries discussed directions for implementing the results of the Foreign Ministers' Meetings last July, agreeing on the need to further promote the strengths of these mechanisms, contributing to peace, security, stability and sustainable development in the region.
ASEAN+3 countries agreed to effectively implement the ASEAN+3 Work Programme (2023-2027), focusing on enhancing supply chain resilience and regional connectivity, facilitating trade and investment, ensuring financial stability, effectively utilizing free trade agreements between ASEAN and China, Japan, South Korea and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), existing cooperation frameworks such as the Chiangmai Initiative Multilateralization Agreement, the Disaster Risk Financing Solution, the ASEAN+3 Emergency Rice Reserve Fund, etc.
EAS countries promote the value of dialogue, consultation and cooperation, enhance adaptability to changes, and agree to coordinate effectively implementing the EAS Action Plan (2024-2028) in all 16 areas, including sustainable development, maritime cooperation, connectivity, food security, etc.
The partners affirmed their support for ASEAN's central role, together with ASEAN to build an open, transparent, inclusive, and rule-based regional structure, and support the implementation of cooperation areas within the framework of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
Countries expressed concern about the complicated developments at some hotspots in the region and the world such as the East Sea, Myanmar, the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East, and the conflict in Ukraine, emphasizing compliance with international law, the United Nations Charter, and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
At the meetings, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet actively worked with other countries to review preparations for the upcoming Summits, affirming that Vietnam supports and assists Laos in completing this important task, contributing to the overall success of the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2024.
Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet and other countries discussed and shared many opinions on the process of building the Community and the relationship between ASEAN and its partners, especially measures and initiatives to realize the theme of promoting connectivity and self-reliance in the region. The Deputy Minister affirmed that Vietnam supports Timor-Leste to become a full member of ASEAN and is ready to share Vietnam's experience in preparing to join ASEAN since the early 1990s. The Deputy Minister emphasized that ASEAN needs to support, facilitate and further simplify the processes and procedures for Timor-Leste to join ASEAN.
Welcoming efforts to deepen ASEAN+3 and EAS cooperation, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet suggested that partners continue to support ASEAN in building the Community, substantive cooperation to promote regional connectivity and self-reliance, effectively exploiting new trends in innovation, digital economy, digital transformation, green transformation, etc.
Discussing the international and regional situation, the Deputy Minister asked partners to support ASEAN's common principled stance, including the East Sea issue, especially emphasizing the importance of international law and UNCLOS 1982 in peacefully resolving disputes, affirming Vietnam's desire to work with other countries to maintain and promote peace, security, stability, cooperation and development in the region.
On this occasion, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet met with ASEAN, Japan, Australia and the United States partners to discuss issues of concern in bilateral cooperation as well as strengthen coordination at multilateral forums.
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