VietNamNet Bridge – Regional leaders yesterday, Oct 28, vowed to continue their efforts to look for directions and measures to guarantee ASEAN's central role as an international driving force while strengthening its co-operation with partners to build a strong common community.

17th ASEAN Summit and Vietnam

Regional leaders pose for a photograph at the opening ceremony of the 17th ASEAN Summit in Ha Noi.

"We should further undertake comprehensive measures to ensure ASEAN centrality in an evolving regional architecture with regards to the decisions made at the 16th ASEAN Summit, "Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in his opening speech.

Viet Nam took over the chairmanship of the regional grouping at the beginning of this year and under the theme of ‘Towards the ASEAN Community: from Vision to Action', ASEAN has been undertaking many concrete activities to bring about significant outcomes in the realisation of set goals and plans, including the decisions of the 16th ASEAN Summit in Ha Noi last April, according to Dung.

The region is on its way to building the ASEAN Community by 2015, and the ASEAN Charter, which came into force in 2008, is being brought to life by the region's people.

Dung, as the chairperson of the summit, spoke highly of the major achievements made in the past year under Viet Nam's chairmanship in the implementation of the Charter and the Roadmap for the ASEAN Community.

The ASEAN Charter had been brought to life with the smooth operation of the new organisational structure as well as the finalisation of related legal documents, thus creating a legal basis and institutional framework for the ASEAN Community and deeper regional integration.

The identification and carrying out of comprehensive measures to accelerate the implementation of the programmes and plans to build the ASEAN Community in the most effective manner are among the top discussions to be continued from last April's summit at the meeting. The PM called for efforts to create a real improvement in the ‘culture of compliance' through, among others, strengthening the monitoring and assessment mechanisms for the materialisation of agreements.

Dung also underlined success in the implementation of programmes and plans for building the ASEAN Community on three pillars – political-security, economic, and social-cultural communities. He said they had been expeditiously undertaken along the defined priorities and roadmaps, bringing about important results.

The building of the ASEAN Political-Security Community, particularly in the 14 prioritised areas, had progressed significantly with regular dialogue and co-operation at all levels on issues of mutual concern, having enhanced mutual understanding and trust among countries, thus contributing to the maintenance of peace and security in the region, said the Government leader.

With the recovery of the regional economy, the process of building the ASEAN Economic Community, said Dung, was also moving in the right direction with the firm establishment as well as the implementation of a number of co-operation programmes in key areas like the ASEAN single window and trade facilitation programme.

The task of building the ASEAN Social-Cultural Community towards a people-oriented, caring and sharing bloc was taking considerable steps forward, particularly in human development and addressing global challenges, said Dung.

He underlined the strong development of relations between ASEAN and its partners this year, manifested by the strengthening of regular dialogues at various levels and the important outcomes of action plans to implement joint statements on strategic or comprehensive partnerships.

Eleven meetings, including those among the regional leaders and those among ASEAN leaders and their partners, are for the first time seeing the participation of the American and Russian foreign ministers. Apart from the annual ASEAN+1 summit with China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and India, the regional leaders are also holding summits with Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United Nations.

"The second ASEAN-US Leaders Meeting was convened with the agreement to lift the partnership to a higher level," said Dung, referring to the meeting held in New York last month, which was co-chaired by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and his American counterpart Barak Obama.

Along with the strategic partnership with China and Japan, the ASEAN leaders will also consider the elevation of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea relationship to a strategic partnership as well, according to Dung.

Further strengthening ASEAN's external relations through concrete plans and measures to support the goal of building the ASEAN Community is also among the focus of the three-day meeting.

"We should actively putforth proposals and measures to improve the effi ciency of the activities within wider co-operation frameworks wherein ASEAN plays central roles such as ASEAN-3, the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus," said the Prime Minister.

Dung urged the region to use its unique role to link and harmonise various interest groups in the region and to serve as a hub, connecting existing co-operation arrangements and frameworks while promoting an evolving regional architecture based on various intertwining, mutually supportive and complementary mechanisms.

More discussions at the debate this year will focus on enhancing the region's role as an important force in the maintenance of peace and stability in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific at large, and acting as a responsible member of the international community in responding to current global challenges, especially the economic-financial crisis, climate change, natural disasters and pandemics.

In highlighting ASEAN's role and responsibility to find solutions for these problems, Dung asked the leaders to help strengthen wider co-operation to address security challenges, particularly non-traditional ones like international terrorism, transnational crime, maritime security and safety. He added that it was important to carry out concrete measures to enhance intra-ASEAN co-operation while at the same time promoting co-operation on a wider level and contributing positively to the common efforts of the international community, including UN-related activities.

Dung said he hoped the meetings, which are significant to the future development of ASEAN and the region, would find practical solutions to the matters in hand for the common interest of peace, stability and development in the region.

At the end of the day, the Summit chairman issued a statement on outcomes and decisions made at the meeting.

It said ASEAN leaders adopted a master plan on ASEAN Connectivity submitted by a high-level task force.

This calls for the establishment of an ASEAN Connectivity Co-ordinating Committee to oversee the implementation of the Master Plan.

The leaders welcomed efforts by ASEAN financial ministers towards the establishment of an ASEAN Infrastructure Fund.

These decisions are intended to enhance all aspects of regional connectivity as well as paving the way for connectivity in the wider East Asian region.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News