Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends the dialogue session between ASEAN leaders and representatives of the High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Community's Post-2025 Vision (Photo: VNA)
Specifically, during his stay in Labuan Bajo, PM Chinh had nearly 20 activities, both bilateral and multilateral.
With the Summit’s theme of “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth”, Chinh and other participating leaders discussed and outlined the future of the ASEAN Community for the next 20 years, with stronger development goals and aspirations.
The PM highlighted three core factors to ASEAN’s characteristics, values, vitality and reputation, which are maintaining independence and strategy self-reliance, turning itself into a growth epicentre, and better adapting to external shocks.
He emphasised that strengthening solidarity and unity should be the key task for an independent and self-resilient ASEAN.
Given risks and uncertainties of the global economy, Chinh stressed the urgent need for the 10-member grouping to expand the intra market in order to promote recovery and sustainable development, calling for efforts in negotiations to advance the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, and concertedly and drastically rolling out projects on regional connectivity in terms of institutions, infrastructure and people.
With the spirit of taking people as the growth centre, target and momentum in ASEAN Community building, the bloc should work to narrow its development gap, especially in remote areas and sub-regions, he continued.
To achieve the goal of and aspirations for peace, security, stability and prosperity, he appealed to ASEAN member countries to join hands in building self-resilience and solidarity, unlock development resources, and raise breakthrough initiatives to build the ASEAN Community, helping the bloc turn itself into a growth epicentre regionally and globally.
Chinh’s proposals received support and were appreciated by other ASEAN leaders.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) meets with his counterpart from Timor Leste Taur Matan in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia on May 11 (Photo: VNA)
He also had bilateral meetings with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Lao PM Sonexay Siphandone, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Prime Minister of Timor-Leste Taur Matan Ruak.
At these meetings, Chinh and leaders of ASEAN countries discussed the implementation of agreements, commitments and measures to strengthen cooperation, with specific and substantive contents.
The Vietnamese leader’s participation in the 42nd ASEAN Summit and related activities affirms that Vietnam makes positive, proactive, and responsible contributions to strengthening ASEAN solidarity and effectively responding to challenges. It also demonstrates Vietnam's priorities in terms of strategic infrastructure connectivity, digital transformation, green transformation, food security, energy, sub-regional development, and response to climate change, affirming the role, image, and prestige of ASEAN, thereby contributing to the building of the ASEAN Community, and upholding ASEAN's principled stance on international and regional issues.
He highlighted Vietnam’s fast transformation and outstanding development achievements in recent years. With about 100 million people, ranking third among ASEAN member countries in population scale, Vietnam has strong economic potential with high investment attraction and fast social development, he said, adding that the “S”-shape country is one of the ASEAN members that draws great attention in investment, tourism and trade.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council 2023 (ASEAN-BAC) Arsjad Rasjid praised Vietnam’s positive contributions to materialising economic priorities of ASEAN in 2023.
He said that Vietnam has been an important player in promoting trade and investment within the region and beyond, as the country has actively participated in initiatives such as the ASEAN Free Trade Area and recently expressed interest in joining the cross-border payment connectivity network, which is a positive development for the region's economic integration. According to him, Vietnam's upcoming hosting of the ASEAN Wind Energy 2023 event is a significant contribution to the region's renewable energy goals.
At the same time, Timor-Leste Ambassador to Indonesia Filomeno Aleixo da Cruz said that Vietnam has been a very strong supporter of Timor-Leste’s ASEAN membership bid since the very beginning of their application. He affirmed that Timor Leste is looking forward to working closely with Vietnam in the future especially in relation to the membership to ASEAN, through capacity building programmes and development cooperation.
The 10 documents approved at the summit include the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Developing Regional Electric Vehicle Ecosystem; ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on One Health Initiative; ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Advancing Regional Payment Connectivity and Promoting Local Currency Transaction; and ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Combating Trafficking in Persons Caused by The Abuse of Technology.
The leaders passed the ASEAN Declaration on The Protection of Migrant Workers and Family Members in Crisis Situations; ASEAN Declaration on The Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers; ASEAN Leaders Joint Statement on The Establishment of an ASEAN Villages Network; and a roadmap for admission of Timor Leste as an official member of ASEAN.
They also adopted ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on The Development of The ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision, which aims to promote strong, comprehensive and inclusive growth and settle challenges inside and outside the region in the next 20 years.
The ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Strengthening ASEAN’s Capacity and Institutional Effectiveness was also approved at the summit, reaffirming the commitment of ASEAN leaders to make efforts to maintain centrality, unity and relevance amid the challenges facing the region.
Leaders also discussed the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar, and condemned the attack on a convoy of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) and ASEAN Monitoring Team in Myanmar.
