The five statements and 21 different documents that Vietnam presented at the 43rd ASEAN Summit and related summits are proof of Vietnam's proactive and active participation in this event, according to Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung.
As one of the official members accompanying Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung commented that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to attend the 43rd ASEAN Summit and related summits was very successful, achieving comprehensive results, both in multilateral and bilateral activities, in all fields, from economy, culture - society, security - defense.
"The commitments, initiatives and proposals made by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the conferences were highly appreciated by the ASEAN community," Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized.
According to the Minister, the proposals and initiatives of the head of the Vietnamese Government have a very important stature and meaning, sending a message about a united and inseparable ASEAN.
"Each country in the region, in addition to its own efforts to improve, must join hands and cooperate with each other, and only through cooperation can countries develop," Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized.
Besides, the Minister also mentioned another important message that countries need to close political differences and opposing views, to find common ground and reach a common consensus, for the benefit of the nation and put people first and foremost.
These messages are also consistent with the orientation mentioned at the Opening Ceremony of the 43rd ASEAN Summit, which is that ASEAN is united, always moving forward strongly, together making ASEAN's stature increasingly stronger, becoming a center of growth in the region and the world.
"In the vast ocean, no one can go it alone. ASEAN wishes to cooperate for mutual benefit with all countries, affirming its role as the center of growth," Indonesian President Joko Widodo emphasized in his opening speech at the Conference.
Taking the image of the "ASEAN boat" sailing out to the open sea, open to the world, cooperating with partners for the common goal of peace, security and stability, President Widodo affirmed that ASEAN is unanimous and determined not to turn the region into a place of power friction, but a place to nurture cooperation and dialogue for peace and prosperity.
Notably, at this event, the President of Indonesia awarded the ASEAN Prize 2023 to Vietnamese businesswoman Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh for her great contributions to the process of building the ASEAN Community.
She is the founder of the ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network (AWEN), which supports women in starting and growing businesses and enhancing economic empowerment.
She is also an active person in implementing many training projects, training, and supporting female entrepreneurs, contributing significantly to the growth of the Vietnamese and ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Community, connecting with APEC and global economies.
Returning to the message of a united ASEAN, speaking at the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that in order to maintain "ASEAN's stature" and be the "center of growth", ASEAN's self-reliance must be enhanced through promoting economic connectivity, expanding the intra-bloc market, and facilitating trade and investment flows.
The Vietnamese Government leader requested ASEAN countries to urgently remove policy and institutional bottlenecks and barriers, maintain stability in the intra-bloc supply chain, and enhance the region's resilience to external impacts and challenges.
According to the Head of Government, each ASEAN member country must uphold the spirit of solidarity, independence, self-reliance, and self-reliance, and this spirit must be demonstrated in both words and actions.
"Only then can ASEAN's role be truly promoted and receive practical respect from partners, especially major countries," Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized.
Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet said that at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other leaders had in-depth discussions on regional and international issues, reaffirming ASEAN's principled stance on the East Sea issue.
"Protecting peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea is both the benefit and responsibility of all countries," is the viewpoint affirmed by the head of the Vietnamese Government.
Emphasizing the core spirit of "taking people as the center, goal and driving force" of the ASEAN Community building process, the Prime Minister suggested the need to orientate for equitable and sustainable development, especially in remote, isolated and sub-regional areas.
At this meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Vietnam will host the ASEAN Future Forum on rapid, sustainable, people-centered development, to complement ASEAN's official forums and mechanisms.
"The important speeches and proposals of the Vietnamese Government leaders at all conferences brought to ASEAN and its partners many practical messages, directions and initiatives," said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Sharing his views at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that in the face of fierce competition among major countries, the only answer for ASEAN to maintain its central role is to promote its own strength, strengthen internal solidarity, and affirm its strategic value.
"ASEAN countries need to uphold the spirit of independence, self-reliance, rule of law and be steadfast in the basic principles and standards of conduct of ASEAN," according to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
He also stressed that in the midst of competition, ASEAN needs to maintain strategic balance with major powers. The region must truly become a reliable bridge with the capacity to harmonize and balance relationships and interests.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet, in ASEAN conferences with partners, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has repeatedly emphasized the need to promote trade, investment, business connections, stabilize supply chains, and support each other's market access. He also hopes that partners will support and create more favorable conditions for goods from Vietnam and ASEAN countries.
ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn said the region’s economic growth momentum remains solid with a positive forecast of 4.6% in 2023 and 4.9% in 2024. ASEAN trade recorded an impressive growth of nearly 15% to $3.8 trillion. Investment also reached a record high of over $224 billion.
At the ASEAN Summit with partners China, South Korea and Japan, all countries affirmed their respect for ASEAN, their desire for deep and substantive cooperation, and the promotion of dialogue.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, speaking at the ASEAN-China Conference, shared his wish that China and ASEAN would not only be each other's largest economic and trade partners, but also one of each other's most important comprehensive strategic partners, for peace, cooperation and development.
The head of the Vietnamese Government suggested that ASEAN and China coordinate to turn the region into a center of economic growth; take advantage of advantages to promote connectivity, ensure production and supply chains, and expand cooperation in developing the digital economy and green economy.
At the ASEAN-Korea Summit, the Prime Minister emphasized that the two sides need to create a major shift in economic cooperation, promoting trade and investment in a balanced and sustainable direction.
With Japan, the head of the Vietnamese Government proposed making economic cooperation a key pillar and driving force to promote the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Promoting trade and investment exchanges is also the direction agreed upon at the ASEAN - US Summit.
Vice President Kamala Harris affirmed the US commitment to supporting ASEAN's central role. She stressed that the two sides need to share interests, priorities, and long-term visions, and work together to respond to common challenges.
The establishment of the ASEAN-US Center in Washington DC, which will facilitate exchanges between people, businesses, and scholars between ASEAN and the US, was also announced by Ms. Harris at this conference.
In 2022, the US was the largest investment partner in ASEAN with a total foreign direct investment of 36.5 billion USD, and was also the second largest trading partner of ASEAN with a total two-way trade turnover of more than 420 billion USD.
ASEAN and the US have agreed to promote trade and investment exchanges, stabilize supply chains, improve medical capacity, expand cooperation in applying science and technology, and develop sustainable infrastructure...
Sharing his views, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that ASEAN and the US need to quickly turn economic and trade cooperation into a pillar and science, technology and innovation into a driving force to promote the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two sides.
At the ASEAN+3 Summit, leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to promote cooperation strengths in economics, trade, finance, health, etc. and expand new areas of cooperation, focusing on innovation, ensuring food security, energy transition, climate change, etc.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that ASEAN+3 needs to coordinate to promote economic, trade, investment exchanges and multilateral linkages, including effectively coordinating the implementation of ASEAN+1 FTAs with each partner, China, Japan and South Korea.
The head of the Vietnamese Government proposed that ASEAN+3 expand cooperation areas, especially digital transformation, digital economy, e-commerce, Fintech, AI, green finance, green technology, etc.
The ASEAN-Canada Summit also agreed to coordinate to effectively exploit the potential for cooperation, focusing on the fields of digital transformation, food security, business support, human resource training, climate change response, etc.
With a scale of over 54% of the world's population and about 62% of global GDP, East Asia is expected to be the center of convergence of trust and spreading benefits. Therefore, at the East Asia Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the importance of an open market and transparent policies.
According to him, the region should have a strategic, long-term vision, instead of applying local, short-term measures, to make East Asia the center of trade, connect supply chains, and maintain smooth flow of goods and services.
At the ASEAN-India Summit, the two sides agreed to focus on prioritizing sustainable maritime cooperation, blue economy, counter-terrorism, transnational crime, while expanding cooperation in energy transition and climate change response.
Recognizing the breakthrough potential of ASEAN and India, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed strengthening economic and trade connectivity, effectively implementing AIFTA, promoting complementary strengths in trade, investment, connectivity, etc.
Emphasizing the importance of transport connectivity, the head of the Vietnamese Government suggested that both sides allocate appropriate resources to soon complete highway projects connecting India with ASEAN, extending to Vietnam and spreading throughout ASEAN.
All the orientations and commitments made by the leaders of the countries are aimed at making ASEAN the center of growth. According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet, this is not only an aspiration but also a mission of ASEAN, aiming to ensure a better and more effective environment for cooperation and development for the 680 million people in the region.
Speaking further about Vietnam's contributions in the socio-cultural field, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung stated that "Vietnam's socio-cultural community has made important contributions to the ASEAN socio-cultural community and contributed to the great success of the 43rd ASEAN Summit".
The Minister said that Vietnam has issued 5 statements and 21 different documents, focusing on a number of emerging issues such as the protection of migrant workers, gender equality, inclusive development for people with disabilities, family development and care, preschool education, strengthening social assistance, restructuring regional health care and promoting resilience to climate change, etc.
"These statements aim to address the challenges brought about by the pandemic and new non-traditional challenges, on the basis of putting the interests of the people first," Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that this is one of Vietnam's great contributions to this ASEAN Conference.
On the sidelines of the conference, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that the head of the Vietnamese Government had nearly 20 bilateral meetings with leaders of countries and international organizations.
Through that, leaders of countries highly appreciated the role, position and stature of Vietnam.
More importantly, according to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, countries look at Vietnam with trust because they see the image of a country considered a "bright spot" overcoming difficulties, always having new and creative things.
Further analyzing this statement, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that in terms of economy, countries and international organizations highly appreciate Vietnam for maintaining macroeconomic stability and controlling inflation in a volatile context.
Furthermore, while most countries share concerns about challenges such as non-traditional security or food security issues, according to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, Vietnam is considered stable and a reliable support for the world community.
In terms of foreign policy, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that Vietnam considers all countries as friends, does not side with anyone and does not dispute with anyone. Therefore, Vietnam receives the trust of countries and international organizations.
In addition to strengthening relations between Vietnam and its partners, Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet said that bilateral meetings contribute to deepening political-diplomatic, economic-trade-investment, security-defense, cultural-educational, and people-to-people cooperation, etc., into greater depth, effectiveness, and substance.
"Partners all highly appreciated the socio-economic development results and governance of the Vietnamese Government in recent times, and acknowledged Vietnam's dynamic role and positive contributions to ASEAN and the region," the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized.
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