Vietnam and the journey of nearly 30 years accompanying ASEAN

Vietnam became an official member of ASEAN on July 28, 1995. During nearly 30 years of accompanying ASEAN, Vietnam has always strived to proactively, positively and responsibly contribute to a strong, united ASEAN with a role and position in the region and the world.

Ambassador Ton Thi Ngoc Huong and ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn. (Source: Permanent Mission of Vietnam to ASEAN)

Notable contributions of Vietnam include 3 times assuming the role of ASEAN Chair (ASEAN Standing Committee 2000-2001), ASEAN Chair 2010 and 2020. In 2001, Vietnam promoted the adoption of the Hanoi Declaration on Narrowing the Development Gap, officially launching the implementation of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) to support narrowing the development gap within ASEAN.

In 2010, with the goal of accelerating the realization of the ASEAN Vision into action, Vietnam's Chairmanship marked important decisions such as the adoption of the first Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC 2015); expanding the East Asia Summit (EAS) mechanism to include Russia and the US; and forming a defense cooperation framework between ASEAN and its Partners through the ADMM+ mechanism.

In 2020, in an unprecedented context, Vietnam has promoted the ASEAN Community to unite and respond effectively and promptly to the unprecedented challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, maintain solidarity, maintain ASEAN's connectivity, support people's stable lives, and promote recovery efforts.

In addition to actively fulfilling its role as ASEAN's rotating Chair, Vietnam has also made important contributions to decisions to guide ASEAN's development, such as promoting the completion of the ASEAN-10 idea, adopting the 1998 Hanoi Action Plan, ASEAN Vision 2020 (1997), the Declaration of ASEAN Concord (2003) on building the ASEAN Community, the ASEAN Charter (2007), the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 (2015), and in the current period, building the ASEAN Community Vision to 2045.

ASEAN flag raising ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

In the relationship between ASEAN and its Partners, Vietnam has assumed the role of coordinator, contributing to promoting substantive and effective cooperation between ASEAN and many important Partners such as China, the US, Russia, Japan, South Korea and preparing to take over the coordination of two partners, New Zealand and the UK, after July 2024 for a three-year term.

Vietnam is always among the top countries in terms of the rate of implementing commitments on economic integration in the ASEAN region. At the same time, it is a country that initiated the idea of ​​forming the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, paying great attention to building a harmonious, cohesive, unique, people-centered ASEAN Community. Vietnam's commitment to ASEAN is consistent and continuous.

Speaking at the ASEAN Future Forum (April 26, 2024), an initiative of Vietnam to create a new dialogue framework on ASEAN's future development, with openness and broad participation of all classes of people, friends and partners of ASEAN, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed:

“Vietnam always considers ASEAN one of the top priorities in foreign, security, economic and defense policies, and always strives for a united and strong ASEAN Community with an increasingly high role and position in the region and the world.”

This policy has been consistently demonstrated over the past 30 years and Vietnam will continue to make every effort towards this goal, contributing to the new development path of ASEAN.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/viet-nam-va-hanh-trinh-gan-30-nam-dong-hanh-cung-asean-280453.html