ASEAN members to strengthen regional cooperation against transnational crime
The 18th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC 18) officially opened on August 28th, in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security General Vilay Lakhamphong chaired the meeting.
Member of the Politburo and Minister of Public Security Senior Lieutenant General Luong Tam Quang led a high-ranking delegation of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam to attend the meeting.
After the welcoming speech by ASEAN General Secretary Kao Kim Hourn, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security Vilay Lakhamphong delivered his opening speech, in which he highlighted ASEAN's joint efforts in the fight against transnational crime, pointed out challenges faced by ASEAN member states, and proposed approaches to strengthen regional cooperation against transnational crime.
Speaking at the plenary session of AMMTC 18, Minister Luong Tam Quang underscored that, as a member of ASEAN, Vietnam commits to actively and responsibly participating in ASEAN cooperation frameworks in general and regional cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crime in particular.
At the meeting, Minister Luong Tam Quang suggested that ASEAN member states should enhance criminal information exchange, jointly investigate and handle cases of transnational crimes, particularly drug-related crimes, criminal offenses, human trafficking and high-tech crimes, while countries with shared borderlines should conduct joint patrols along their shared borderlines and jointly launch ASEAN-level campaigns against transnational crimes.
The Vietnamese Public Security Minister also proposed that police forces of ASEAN member states should coordinate to deal with cases involving one country’s citizen committing crime in another country, as well as promote the role of regional media in raising the public awareness of potential threats posed by transnational crimes, especially human trafficking, terrorism, cybercrime, contributing to actively preventing transnational crimes early and from afar.
Minister Luong Tam Quang called on ASEAN member states to efficiently and appropriately answer one country’s requests for legal assistance , extradition, transfer of sentenced persons as well as arrest of wanted fugitives, recovery of assets transferred abroad by offenders, based on the laws and political, diplomatic requirements of each country.
The Vietnamese head delegate also proposed ASEAN member states to expand cooperation in researching and applying high technologies as well as supporting each other in training and capacity building of law enforcement personnel to enhance their practical capabilities of combating transnational crime under the principle of not lagging behind criminals and preventing crime from prevailing; in other words, law enforcement forces of regional countries should keep pace with the rapid development of modern technologies as well as new types of crimes.
On the same day, the 18th AMMTC Meeting issued the Vientiane Joint Statement on strengthening law enforcement cooperation in preventing and combating online employment frauds, which reaffirms ASEAN member states’ joint effort to combat online job and employment scams and other related crimes via current mechanisms.
In addition, head delegates of member states also reached consensus on contents of the ASEAN Leaders’ Joint Statement on strengthening cooperation in combating drug and its precursor trafficking, aiming to strengthen the joint commitment of ASEAN countries to preventing and combating the illicit production, processing, trafficking and abuse of drugs.
