(VOVworld) – The world community has continued to praise Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s speech at the recently concluded 12th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Prime Minister Dung not only talked about Vietnam’s foreign, defense and security policies, he also delivered the message that peace requires strategic trust. Building an Asia-Pacific region of peace, stability and prosperity needs respect and each nation’s consistent goal to achieve peace. VOV brings you opinions by some international experts about the issue.
The Shangri-La Dialogue has caught the world attention as an important political event and a mechanism to ensure security and dialogue among regional countries. While there are other regional forums and institutions on defense and security such as the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus, the Shangri-La Dialogue is considered an important and practical security dialogue channel in the region’s unstable geo-political structure. With no joint statements and unbound by agreements, Shangri-La is an open forum where involved countries can meet and hold talks concerning security-based trust building.
The presence of Vietnam’s Prime Minister and his keynote speech has impressed the world community. Co-editor of the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, David Camroux, an expert on Southeast Asia said “We all know that Indonesia is the biggest country in ASEAN therefore Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung being the main speaker at the Shangri-La Dialogue demonstrates Vietnam’s central role in the region’s geo-political matters.”
David said Vietnam’s foreign policy was incorporated in Prime Minister Dung’s speech, which proposed ways to settle issues related to maintaining regional peace and stability including security in the East Sea, vital to Vietnam. David agreed with Vietnam’s stance on resolving disputes in the East Sea through multilateral negotiations, saying that these should be internationalized.
Director of Russia’s Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies, Vladimir Mazyrin, said Vietnam was right when referring to major regional countries’ intention to increase their competitiveness and interference. He said cooperation, multi-level and sectoral linkages and dialogue are currently important factors to address differences in the Asia-Pacific region: “Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam does not reject the inclusions of non-regional countries toward strengthened cooperation for peace, security and development. He stressed the need to listen to the voices and objective opinions of small countries. As a Vietnam researcher, I do not consider Vietnam a small country given its economy and global status. Prime Minister Dung’s speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue has confirmed Vietnam’s international profile and its greater voice in international and regional issues.”
Another Russian political analyst Petr Tsvetov said Prime Minister Dung’s speech pointed out the nature of conflicts and differences in the Asia-Pacific region. He said political skepticism has been the main cause of conflicts. Petr added that Prime Minister Dung gave a timely and accurate evaluation of solutions to global and regional issues based on international law and the UN Charter. Meanwhile, Professor Geoffrey Till of King’s College of the UK said Prime Minister Dung’s proposed solutions are just what regional countries with maritime disputes need to resolve their differences.
Prime Minister Dung’s message that peace and security are not only one nation’s desires and priority but an irreversible trend has created wide consensus among the world community.