As the bloc's chair this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will preside over the opening, plenary and special sessions on women’s empowerment in the digital age.

He will also chair dialogues between ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), ASEAN youth representatives and ASEAN Business Advisory Council.

The Chairwoman of the National Assembly, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, will speak at a special session on women’s empowerment, and NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, head of the Vietnamese delegation to the AIPA, will attend the dialogue between ASEAN leaders and the AIPA.

A series of preparatory meetings will be held from June 22 to 24.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh will chair the informal ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, the meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council and the meeting of the ASEAN Political-Security Community Council.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh will chair the ministerial meeting of participating countries in negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership while Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung will chair the 23rd meeting of the ASEAN Cultural-Social Community Council.

The bloc's 36th summit had been scheduled to take place from April 6 to 9 in Da Nang, but the government decided to postpone it because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ASEAN Summit is a biannual meeting held to discuss economic, political, security and socio-cultural developments in the bloc. It has other world leaders attending related summits and meetings to discuss various problems and global issues and strengthen cooperation in tackling them.

ASEAN has 10 members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

It has eight partners, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the U.S.

The pandemic has affected 213 countries and territories around the world, claiming more than 470,000 lives.

Some Asian countries such as China and South Korea have been facing renewed outbreaks.