(VOVWORLD) - The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM-53) and 20 related meetings via teleconference opened on Wednesday, highlighting ASEAN centrality in regional issues and striving for higher international status.
 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc delivers an opening speech at AMM-53. (Photo: VNA) |
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh delivered their opening remarks at the four-day conference attended by 27 delegations from all over the world.
Prime Minister Phuc told the conference that ASEAN unity has been prevalent more than ever in the last eight months since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The pandemic and tumultuous political and geo-economic environment, including the East Sea situation, have impacted on regional peace and stability, Mr. Phuc said.
To uphold ASEAN achievements, Prime Minister Phuc suggested, “We need to continue upholding ASEAN’s solidarity and unity in order to successfully realize the Blueprints for the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. Efforts should be invested to control COVID-19 and promote sustained recovery. On that basis, we shall settle peacefully all disputes and differences on the basis of international law, including UNCLOS 1982 and ASEAN’s instruments on norms of conducts in the region.”
The Prime Minister asked ASEAN to continue to persist with its chosen path and methods established in more than five decades. Vietnam, whose ASEAN Presidency coincides with its 25-year ASEAN membership in 2020, commits best effort to build an ASEAN Community.
 AMM-53 is held via teleconference. (Photo: VNA) |
In his opening remark, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said an ASEAN Community is firmly taking shape and striving for a higher status regionally and globally. He expected that the Foreign Ministers will work out solutions to enhance intra-bloc cooperation and increase its resilience to overcome difficulties and to realize the targets set by the 36th ASEAN Summit for ASEAN long-term development.
“We will continue to consolidate solidarity and unity, caring and sharing, respect for each other’s interests and concerns, so that ASEAN member states shall be sustainably bonded within a strong ASEAN Community. To take the lead in setting our future development path, we will discuss ways and means to develop a new vision for the post-2025 ASEAN Community, inheriting the existing achievements so as to help ASEAN effectively respond to challenges and opportunities arising in the coming decades.” Mr. Minh said.
The opening ceremony was followed by meetings of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) and the ASEAN Coordinating Council on Sub-Regional Development.
The ASEAN Foreign Ministers also held talks with their counterparts from China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan.