Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (Source: VNA)
Dung, who is also head of Vietnam ASEAN SOM, stressed that Vietnam actively supports and promotes priority cooperation areas of ASEAN +3 and EAS.
He expressed the hope that partners will continue to support the central role of ASEAN, and join efforts to consolidate an opening, transparent and rule-based regional structure for peace, stability and development in the region.
The meetings focused discussions on preparations for the 19th ASEAN +3 Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the 8th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting (8th EAS FMM) scheduled to take place on August 4th.
Participants to the ASEAN+3 meeting highlighted the importance of the ASEAN 3 cooperation mechanism as a tool towards a long-term goal of the community building in East Asia after 20 years of formation and development, affirming that this is an integral component of the regional cooperation architecture.
They also reviewed the results of the implementation of the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Cooperation Work Plan for the 2018-2022 period and the implementation of recommendations in the Report of the East Asia Vision Group II (EAVGII) in recent times.
They stressed the need to continue promoting specific and practical cooperation in areas of common interest and priority, such as counterterrorism and extreme violence prevention; maritime cooperation; economic integration and regional connection; macro-financial stability, small and medium sized-enterprise development, health, climate change, disaster response, food security, cultural exchange and people-to-people exchange.
The meeting agreed on the importance of accelerating efforts to complete negotiations on the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) on schedule, and maintain the ASEAN+3’s contributions to promoting economic links and market opening in the region.
ASEAN 3 senior officials agreed that the planed agenda and activities and draft documents that will be reported to the 19th ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, while debating preparations for the 21st ASEAN+3 Summit in November 2018.
Meanwhile, officials to the EAS meeting emphasized the important role played by the EAS as a forum for leaders to promote dialogue on strategically political and economic issues, thus bringing recorded benefits for peace, stability and cooperation in the region.
They affirmed their commitment to invest appropriate resources for the implementation of the Manila Action Plan in the 2018-2022 period of the EAS.
The EAS’s member nations agreed to foster cooperation in priority areas in the Plan and said that they will offer more specific cooperation proposals in areas such as maritime cooperation, health and education, environmental protection, disaster response, creativity, energy, and e-commerce.
In preparation for the 8th EAS FMM on August 4th, and the 13th EAS Summit to be held on November this year, participants discussed and basically agreed on documents that will be reported to foreign ministers before submitting to senior leaders on promoting EAS cooperation in the spheres of smart city development, counterterrorism, minimization of plastic waste at sea, nuclear and information security.
The ASEAN+3 comprises ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK)./.