Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, on September 1 chaired a virtual special meeting of ASEAN senior officials on the bloc’s external relations.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (Photo: VNA) 

During the meeting, the officials lauded Vietnam’s initiative to organise the meeting, which gives a chance for participants to share opinions on ASEAN's foreign relations, thus building a common strategic, comprehensive and effective approach to the implementation of ASEAN's external affairs amidst the rapidly and complicatedly changing situation in the region and the world.

They underlined that in relations with all partners, ASEAN’s central role must be placed at the top through positive, active and balanced engagement.

The officials agreed that it’s time for the association to review its relations with outside partners, focusing on evaluating the contributions of partners to the completion of the region’s goals. They agreed to review the criteria for the recognition of ASEAN’s partners, thus ensuring the bloc’s central role and meeting the demand and interest of partners.

Dung affirmed the significant role of partners in peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

He stressed the urgent need to build regulations to recognise partnership relations of the association in the current period, which he held that once again shows the active responsiveness of ASEAN.

The Deputy Foreign Minister called on all member countries to promptly complete the building of criteria for the evaluation of external relations to submit to ASEAN leaders.