Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and a Vietnamese delegation are due to leave Vietnam for Malaysia on November 20 to attend the 27th ASEAN Summit and related high-level meetings scheduled in the next two days in Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

The Vietnamese delegation includes Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia Pham Cao Phong, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu, Deputy Chairman of the Government Office Nguyen Xuan Thanh and PM assistant Bui Quoc Bao.

Attending the 27th ASEAN Summit, Vietnamese delegation aims to continue exercising the country’s independent and self-controlled foreign policy for peace, cooperation, development, international multi-lateralisation and diversification, active international integration, and further promoting ASEAN linkages to be tighter and more efficient while strengthening and enhancing solidarity, unification as well as the significant role of ASEAN in ensuring peace, security, cooperation and development in the region.

ASEAN Summit to promote regional connections

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will attend the 27th ASEAN Summit and other related meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on November 21-22, aiming to contribute to boosting closer links within the bloc.

The Vietnamese leader will have separate meetings with leaders of other countries on the sidelines of the event to deepen bilateral relations.

During the gathering, leaders from ASEAN member nations will sign documents related to the formation of the ASEAN Community, which is said to be an important turning point, opening a new chapter in the process of development and connection among the group’s member countries.

They will focus their discussions on how to step up links, improve operations and external relations thus realising its goals of ensuring peace, security, cooperation and development in the area.

A series of related activities will be held in the framework of the summit, including The ASEAN + 3 Summit between ASEAN , Japan , the Republic of Korea ( RoK) and China , t he East Asia Summit (EAS) Summit (with eight dialogue partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, the RoK, New Zealand, Russia and the US), ASEAN+1 (with China, the RoK, Japan, the US, India, and the UN), and a commemorative summit celebrating 40 years of ASEAN-New Zealand ties.

On the occasion, a ceremony will be held to transfer the Chair of ASEAN 2016 to Laos from Malaysia.

Since Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995, the country always makes active and responsible contributions to the group’s goals, thus building a community and bringing practical benefits to people from all member nations.

After 48 years of development, ASEAN has become a community with close connections in all the three key pillars: politics-security, economy and socio-culture. It also promotes its increasingly important role and voice in the region and the world.

The establishment of the ASEAN Community later this year will be a milestone in the connectivity process of the group’s member nations, showing their political determination to lift their connectivity to a higher level.

Connections between ASEAN and its partners recorded strong improvements. The group has established strategic partnerships with China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India and Australia.

The 27th ASEAN Summit will see the participation of about 3,000 delegates from the 10 ASEAN nations and dialogue partners such as Japan, China, India and the US.

ASEAN groups together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

VNA