ASEAN Joint Consultative Meeting held in Singapore

• Digital economy makes ASEAN become more competitive
• ASEAN, China committed to completing COC in East Sea

At the 31st ASEAN Summit in Manila

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of the Vietnam ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), and a Vietnamese delegation attended the event. 

Themed “Resilient and Creative ASEAN”, leaders of the bloc will review the construction of the ASEAN Community and devise supplementary measures for the process. 

Participants gave their feedback on the contents of documents of the 32nd ASEAN Summit, during which countries are due to adopt the Chairman’s Statement, the Declaration on the Vision of ASEAN Leaders on a resilient and creative ASEAN, documents on definition of the establishment of ASEAN Smart Cities Network, and ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Cyber Security Cooperation. 

In order to further push forward the construction of the ASEAN Community, high-ranking leaders will raise ideas to improve the working efficiency of ASEAN cooperation apparatus, including enhancing the capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat, boosting regional linkage and connectivity, and effectively realising inter-sectoral and inter-pillar contents, and orientations to relations with external partners. 

The ASEAN SOM was also held on March 7 to discuss regional and global matters. 

On the East Sea issue, countries agreed to maintain ASEAN’s principles, step up consultation with partners, as well as strengthen trust building among regional states. 

The meeting heard a report on the outcomes of the 23rd Meeting of the ASEAN- China Joint Working Group (JWG) on the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea held in Nha Trang city in Vietnam’s central province of Khanh Hoa in late February. 

Deputy FM Dung reiterated Vietnam’s commitment to actively, proactively and responsibly joining the construction of the ASEAN Community, adding that the bloc’s continued maintenance of solidarity and consensus on regional and global issues has contributed to peace and stability and reflected its central role in the region. 

Speaking highly of the outcomes of the 23rd Meeting of the ASEAN-China JWG, Dung suggested that during the next negotiations, countries need to agree that the Code of Conduct in the East Sea is an open document based on the principles of international law, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other related documents between ASEAN and China.