(VOVworld) - The 30th ASEAN Summit opened in the Philippines on Saturday. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc led a Vietnamese delegation to attend the event. In his opening remarks, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on ASEAN countries to respect national independence and affirmed that relationships will bring about benefits if mutual benefit is respected.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc participates in 30th ASEAN Summit
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In his speech, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc supported cooperation priorities set out by the ASEAN Chairman saying they reflect the needs of strengthening internal unity and promoting ASEAN's central role as a global partner. He urged ASEAN to focus on people's interests, improving ASEAN's performance, and strengthening internal unity and regional connectivity.
At the plenary session on Saturday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and leaders of other ASEAN countries discussed the development of the ASEAN Community. Prime Minister Phuc attended a meetings between ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and ASEAN youth representatives.
At the end of the summit, ASEAN leaders are expected to sign the ASEAN Declaration on the Role of the Civil Service as Catalyst for Achieving ASEAN Vision 2025. President Rodrigo Duterte, 2017 ASEAN Chair, will also make the ASEAN Summit Chairman Statement.
On Friday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The two leaders agreed to further bilateral ties and increase two way trade to 20 billion USD by 2020, increase bilateral military cooperation, food processing and labor. The two Prime Ministers agreed to work closely to promote ASEAN’s role in addressing regional strategic issues and stressed the importance of settling disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means.
Prime Minister Phuc met Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Head of the Myanmar delegation the same day. The two sides agreed to sign more agreements to boost cooperation in trade, investment, transport, finance, justice, education, telecommunications, agriculture and national defense. Also on Friday, Prime Minister Phuc visited the staff of the Vietnamese embassy and overseas Vietnamese in the Philippines.