Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said cohesive, responsive, proactive and responsible have become a brand of ASEAN, enabling the bloc to stand hand-in-hand in the face of immense challenges and keep forging ahead. 

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc addresses the opening ceremony
of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting on September 9, 2020.
Photo: VGP

The Vietnamese Government chief made the above statement at the opening ceremony of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Wednesday morning.

“Such brand has emerged prominent in the past 8 months, and is evident through the highest-level commitments by the ASEAN Leaders at the ASEAN and ASEAN+3 Summits in April and the 36th ASEAN Summit in June, respectively,” PM Phuc emphasized.

ASEAN has displayed its courage and resilience amid complex dymanics. In that connection, Phuc commended ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Statement on the 53rd anniversary of ASEAN, in which the regional foreign ministers underlined commitment to maintaining Southeast Asia as a region of peace, security, neutrality and stability while strengthening ASEAN’s centrality, unity and resilience, and promoting confidence building, mutual respect and the rule of law.

The year 2020 will end in just four months while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold in complex manner, and our people and businesses continue to be outstretched by its repercussions. The regional geo-political and geo-economic landscape, including the East Sea are witnessing growing volatilities that are detrimental to peace and stability. Against that backdrop, PM Phuc stressed the need to continue upholding ASEAN’s solidarity and unity in order to successfully realize the Blueprints for the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

He called for efforts to be invested to control COVID-19 and promote sustained recovery. From such perspective, the COVID-19 Response Fund should be well utilized and the Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies should be operationalized so as to raise ASEAN’s response capacity.

Phuc underlined the necessity to capitalize on ASEAN centrality in advancing dialogue, cooperation and confidence building in the region. On that basis, ASEAN shall formulate and share norms of conduct, uphold the rule of law, mutual trust, mutual respect and equality in the relations between and among countries in the region, settle peacefully all disputes and differences on the basis of international law, including UNCLOS 1982 and ASEAN’s instruments on norms of conducts in the region, including the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea among others.

In such a complex landscape today, PM Phuc suggested ASEAN need to continue upholding its solidarity and adhering to its more-than-five-decade path and ASEAN’s way, in line with the spirit of the foreign ministers.

“Let us capitalize on the ASEAN values and identity, which bind our peoples together in a caring and sharing community, just like the sheaf of the yellow paddy stalks on our ASEAN flag or the ASEAN song, which we should promote to become popular icons and pride of the 650 million ASEAN people,” stated PM Phuc./.