(VOV) - Both the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) need to make further contributions to the region’s common goals of peace, stability, security, and cooperation. Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said this at the 2nd EAS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the 19th ARF held in Phnom Penh yesterday. Minh said the EAS continues to provide a platform for discussing important strategic issues, including politics, security and development. He said the summit should continue promoting the five existing joint priorities and other important cooperation areas, including the establishment of a free trade area in East Asia and the fights against natural disasters, terrorism, and transnational crimes.

Minh said that ARF must expand its role as a leading regional forum on political security. The forum needs to effectively implement the Hanoi Plan of Action and the ARF vision statement 2020, and boost cooperation to address non-traditional security challenges, such as natural disasters, terrorism, climate change, and maritime security and safety.

At both meetings, the Vietnamese diplomat expressed his concern over recent complications in the East Sea with violations of sovereignty and jurisdictional rights over the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of coastal nations. Minh said that countries must respect principles of international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, including regulations regarding the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of coastal nations and settlement of disputes through peaceful means.

The same day, ASEAN Foreign Ministers signed an expanded Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia with the EU and the UK. Participants to the meetings paid a courtesy visit to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.