Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit held at the International Convention Centre on March 17.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc attends ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

Themed “Enhancing Regional Security and Prosperity”, the event is an important platform for ASEAN and Australian leaders to discuss orientations to enhance the strategic partnership between the two sides set up in 2014.

In his speech, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed the presence of the ASEAN leaders at this event, organised for the first time in Australia under his initiative.

Later the day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other ASEAN leaders and the Australian PM participated in numerous activities such as a meeting with former scholarship recipients of the new Colombo Programme in Southeast Asian countries and witnessed the signing of the ASEAN-Australia Memorandum of Understanding on counter-terrorism cooperation.

The MoU is considered a historic breakthrough contributing to strengthening the two sides’ collaboration in ensuring regional security. Via signed framework agreements, ASEAN and Australia agreed to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation in terrorist financing and violent extremism. 

The document features various initiatives and framework agreements covering engineering, anti-terrorism law building, regional dialogues and seminars on electronic evidence, financial intelligence and ways to tackle online radicalisation.

The same day, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other ASEAN leaders attended a reception hosted by PM Turnbull.

The Summit’s plenary session and a retreat meeting are scheduled to take place on March 18.

The International Counter-Terrorism Conference and the ASEAN-Australia Business Summit were held ahead of the Summit with the participation of officials, experts and representatives of leading businesses in the region. 

ASEAN and Australia set up relations in 1974. Australia was the first nation establishing the official dialogue partnership with ASEAN in all three fields of politics, economics and specialised cooperation.-VNA