Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son leads the Vietnamese delegation at the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, May 25, 2025. (Photo: VOV)

Mr. Son underlined the vast potential for cooperation and called on both sides to accelerate the implementation of the ASEAN-GCC Framework of Cooperation 2024-2028. This should be done by identifying focus areas for each phase to optimize available resources, he said.

Minister Son proposed selecting annual priority areas aligned with both sides’ interests, such as trade and investment, connectivity, digital transformation, energy, and the Halal economy. Among these, connectivity plays a pivotal role in unlocking new flows of goods, investment, and people between the two regions, which have a total population of 750 million and a combined GDP of over 5 trillion USD. 

The Vietnamese top diplomat stressed the need to improve cooperation mechanisms and prioritize more effective coordination between the ASEAN Secretariat and the GCC Secretariat, and between the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN and the GCC Ambassadors in Jakarta. This will establish regular channels of information exchange and encourage active involvement by specialized agencies to swiftly turn commitments into action.