Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Thi Bich Hue at the online meeting to hand over the ACR Chairmanship (Photo: VNA)

In its six-month taking over the role starting from July last year, the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy worked with embassies of other ASEAN member states to sustain the ARC’s operations amid COVID-19. Seven ambassador-level meetings, activities to celebrate ASEAN’s founding anniversary and 12 other meetings took place during the period.

Under Vietnam’s chairmanship, the committee continued to carry out ASEAN promotion activities such as a photo exhibition of ASEAN member nations in Rome and the 2nd Torino-ASEAN economic cooperation forum.

The Vietnamese Embassy also actively coordinated with ASEAN countries and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the Italy-ASEAN development partnership action plan via an initiative to organise an ASEAN-Italy conference of senior police officers and the organisation of training courses for the ASEAN and Italian police forces on civil protection as well as the prevention of cybercrime and cross-border organised crime, among others.

Participating ASEAN ambassadors praised Vietnam’s active contributions to the effective performance of the ACR amid the pandemic.

The ARC groups embassies of Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines in Italy./.VNA

Vietnam hands over Chairmanhip of ASEAN Committee in Bern to Philippines

The Vietnamese Embassy in the Switzerland, as Chair of the ASEAN Committee in Bern (ACB), has hosted the fifth meeting of the committee in 2020