Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, who is head of the country’s SOM ASEAN, led a Vietnamese delegation to the Joint Consultative Meeting (JCM) of the bloc and ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting in Bangkok from May 28-29.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (Source: VNA)

The events aims to discuss the preparations for the 34th ASEAN Summit scheduled to take place in Thailand in June this year. 

Participants debated the agenda and documents that will be passed at the 34th ASEAN Summit, focusing on how to promote partnership for sustainable development and relations between ASEAN and its partners, regional cooperation, building ASEAN Community, and regional and international issues of common concern. 

They highly appreciated Thailand's preparation as the rotating Chairman of ASEAN, affirming that they will work closely with the country to ensure the success of the summit. 

Participants expressed their support for promoting the mutual link between ASEAN Community Vision 2025 with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and agreed to promote the development of cooperation roadmap between ASEAN and the UN for this goal.

They applauded actively progress in connecting and narrowing the development gap among ASEAN member nations, and supported the promotion of regional connection initiatives and sustainable development in sub-regions, including the Mekong.

The ASEAN member nations agreed to continue promoting efforts for strengthening coordination, and cooperation in inter-sectoral and inter-pillar cooperation issues within ASEAN, and improve the operational efficiency of ASEAN Secretariat.

They also discussed procedures for South Africa to officially join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) of ASEAN, and how to promote the effectiveness and efficiency of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), and steps for Timor Leste to join ASEAN.

Speaking at the events, Deputy FM Dung affirmed that Vietnam actively supports and will work closely with other ASEAN member countries to successfully implement the priorities set for 2019, towards building a sustainable, coherent and adaptable ASEAN.         

In the role of coordinating ASEAN-Japan relations in the period of 2018-2021, Dung informed and invited ASEAN member countries to actively participate in the 34th ASEAN-Japan forum and a symposium on ASEAN-Japan cooperation for prosperity, which will be co-chaired by Vietnam and Japan in Hanoi on June 3-4.