Summit debates ASEAN's goals

Delegation heads at the opening ceremony of the 16th ASEAN Summit in Ha Noi yesterday. Viet Nam will strive to steer the block towards achieving its goals, the Prime Minister said. — VNA/VNS Photo Duc Tam

HA NOI — Viet Nam pledged to do its utmost to collaborate with other regional members to achieve concrete results in building the ASEAN community and to properly address emerging issues, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told the 16th ASEAN summit, which opened yesterday in Ha Noi.

The two-day summit, being held under Viet Nam's ASEAN chairmanship, which coincides with its 15-year ASEAN membership, highlights the significance of the summit as ASEAN accelerates its implementation of the roadmap for an ASEAN community and operates on a legal basis of the ASEAN Charter.

"Given the strategic importance of ASEAN to Viet Nam, we are fully aware that Viet Nam is an inseparable part of the ASEAN family and continues to participate in ASEAN co-operation in a proactive and responsible manner to contribute to building a stronger and more closely integrated ASEAN," said Dung, the chair of the summit.

In his opening statement yesterday, Dung praised the regional states' efforts to maintain unity and close co-operation despite the impacts of complex developments in the region and the world in the last year.

"Relations between ASEAN and our partners have been enhanced, with greater substance and efficiency, and ASEAN's role as a driving force in regional co-operation frameworks has been further strengthened," said Dung.

The overall theme of "Towards the ASEAN Community: from Vision to Action" underlines the region's focus and strong sense of action for this year and beyond.

"All the member states welcome the theme ‘From Vision to Action' and every member believes that it is time to deliver on our commitments, agreements, projects and programmes that we have put together in the blueprint and in various master plans," ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told Viet Nam News yesterday.

Solutions

The summit carries an important mandate of setting forth the directions and appropriate solutions to accelerate ASEAN integration and to enhance its strength in effectively addressing regional issues as well as global challenges. In order to do these tasks well, Dung pointed out five prioritised items to be discussed at the summit.

The Prime Minister requested the member countries to speed up the implementation of the roadmap for the ASEAN Community and to bring the ASEAN Charter to life.

ASEAN should simultaneously act on three directions of accelerating ASEAN economic integration, enhancing East Asian economic and financial co-operation and actively contributing to the common efforts of the international community through the promotion of global solutions, said Dung.

The other thing that should be discussed at the meeting was how to enhance co-operation to cope with challenges and to ensure sustainable development in the region, according to the Prime Minister.

The summit is also expected to discuss measures to further promote co-operation and dialogue for peace, stability and development in the region, and broaden and deepen relations between ASEAN and its dialogue partners, thus maintaining ASEAN's central role in regional processes.

Dung stated that Viet Nam, as the ASEAN chair, had been working closely with other ASEAN members in order to achieve substantial outcomes in the process of ASEAN community building by properly and timely respond to emerging challenges. After the opening ceremony, ASEAN leaders proceeded to the plenary session where they discussed ways and means to enhance regional integration towards an ASEAN community, as well as ways to effectively implement the ASEAN Charter.

The leaders were briefed by the ASEAN Secretary General on the status of implementing the ASEAN Charter and the roadmap for an ASEAN community by 2015, and by the host minister for Industry and Trade, Vu Huy Hoang, on the progress of ASEAN's economic co-operation. The leaders agreed that ASEAN needed to focus on concrete actions to effectively implement agreements in time by enhancing co-ordination among relevant bodies and developing proper mechanisms for monitoring and resource mobilisation.

The ASEAN leaders also gave fruitful guidance to promote ASEAN connectivity. As such, the region's intra-connectivity, including the Mekong and other sub-regions, should be prioritised, focusing on hardware connectivity such as transportation, ICT, energy and software connectivity such as facilitation for cross-border trade, investment, tourism and person-to-person exchanges. At the same time, ASEAN will strengthen co-operation with external partners to pave the way for further connectivity in East Asia.

Right before the opening ceremony, the ASEAN leaders tentatively had their first official meeting with representatives of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) to discuss the promotion of ASEAN-AIPA co-operation as well as their contributions in the ASEAN community building process.

Dung, who attended the meeting, spoke highly of the contributions of the AIPA and member states' parliaments in realising co-operation agreements and building up the ASEAN community.

The Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong, who is the current chairman of the AIPA-31, underlined AIPA's determination to work closely with ASEAN in building the community, promoting regional connectivity and strengthening co-operation to address emerging issues that the region was facing, such as climate change, natural disasters and pandemics.

Trong suggested measures to further promote co-ordination between AIPA and ASEAN, which included creating favourable legal conditions to realise the signed agreements and promoting public awareness, as well as the contributions of parliaments and peoples to the ASEAN community's buildup. He affirmed that the Vietnamese National Assembly, during its chairmanship, would co-ordinate well with other AIPA members to play an active role in the successful realisation of the ASEAN community.

Earlier yesterday, the ASEAN Co-ordinating Council (ACC) met to wrap up the final preparations for the summit, based on the outcomes of the Ministerial Meetings of the association's economic and socio-cultural communities. The ACC adopted documents submitted by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR). The ministers agreed on the ASEAN Community Strategy and took note of the First Report of the High Level Task Force on ASEAN Connectivity, which would be submitted to ASEAN leaders for consideration.

Regarding the list of outcome documents for the summit, the ACC reviewed and adopted two draft statements – the ASEAN Leaders' Statement on Sustained Recovery and Development and the ASEAN Leaders' Statement on Joint Response to Climate Change.

Disputes settlement

After the meeting, the regional foreign ministers signed the Protocol to the ASEAN Charter on Dispute Settlement Mechanisms, which was an important step towards the completion of the legal framework laid down by the ASEAN Charter.

The adoption and signing of the Protocol as well as the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of ASEAN signified the determination of ASEAN in transforming ASEAN into a rules-based organisation and served to facilitate the implementation of the Charter and ASEAN community building.

ASEAN is building up a community based on co-operation in many fields, especially economics, said the spokesman of Ha Noi's ASEAN Summit, Tran Ngoc An, adding that despite similarities and close ties among the member countries, there remained disputes in economic co-operation.

"The Protocol will create a legal framework to help settle the disputes fairly and equally," said An.

All the foreign ministers reaffirmed their commitments to finalising the three other instruments, namely the rules for references to the ASEAN summit, the procedures for authorisation under international and domestic laws and the rules of procedures for requesting the ASEAN Secretariat to interpret the ASEAN Charter, of which the first one shall become an integral part of the Protocol.

The ministers therefore tasked ASEAN SOM leaders to complete the drafting of these instruments as soon as possible and to submit a progress report at the 43rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July.

The ministers agreed that the protocol would be subjected to the respective internal procedures of the member states after the adoption and inclusion of the rules for references to the ASEAN summit in the Protocol. — VNS

Mr.Thanh