The participation of leaders of major economic powers China, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and India as strategic partners at the ASEAN+ summits affirms ASEAN's new stature and regional centrality.
On September 6, ASEAN leaders attended six ASEAN+ summits with major partners including China, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada and ASEAN+3. On the morning of September 7, the ASEAN-India summit and the East Asia Summit (EAS) will take place. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered important speeches at the conferences.
Leaders attending the ASEAN+3 Conference (China, Japan, South Korea)
Yang Jiang
All partners affirmed that they consider ASEAN as the central force in the region, committed to supporting community building, contributing responsibly and effectively to dialogue and cooperation, and efforts to build an open, transparent, inclusive regional structure based on international law.
Building strategic trust
At the 26th ASEAN-China Summit , Chinese Premier Li Qiang highlighted the importance of the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This was achieved thanks to the efforts of both sides, cultivating strategic trust, mutual support, win-win cooperation, and promoting sustainable and inclusive development. Two-way trade between ASEAN and China reached a new record of 722 billion USD. China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years.
Negotiations to upgrade the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area have also made progress. The two sides agreed to continue promoting economic, trade and investment cooperation, stabilizing supply chains, and supporting market access. At the same time, they will expand cooperation in digital transformation, digital economy, climate change response, energy transition, green and sustainable development, etc. 2024 was agreed to be the year of ASEAN-China people-to-people exchanges.
At the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the mutual support between China's development and the ASEAN community's solidarity, unity, and central role in the region. This is a solid foundation for the comprehensive strategic partnership to develop strongly. He expressed his hope that China and ASEAN will not only be each other's largest economic and trade partners but also one of each other's most important comprehensive strategic partners for peace , cooperation, and development.
The Prime Minister suggested that as leading trade partners of each other, ASEAN and China need to coordinate closely and join hands to turn the region into a center of economic growth. The two sides need to take advantage of geographical proximity, improve the quality of economic, trade and investment cooperation, maintain smooth trade; promote connectivity, ensure production and supply chains, and expand cooperation in developing the digital economy and green economy.
On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also proposed that China expand its market, increase the quota of transit goods and speed up the opening process for agricultural, aquatic and fruit products of ASEAN countries to transit through Vietnam to penetrate the Chinese market.
Regarding the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the Prime Minister hopes that it will be effective, maintaining a peaceful, stable, cooperative and mutually developing environment in the region. At the same time, it will be a positive factor in promoting trust building, enhancing dialogue, and peacefully resolving disputes in the region, including the East Sea, contributing to the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon achieving an effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC), in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The meeting adopted the Joint Statement on Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Based on the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and the Joint Statement on Deepening Agricultural Cooperation.
A sustainable future for over 1 billion people
At the 11th ASEAN-US Summit held on the afternoon of September 6, Vice President Kamala Harris affirmed the US's strong and long-term commitment to ASEAN and the region, supporting ASEAN's central role. The US will establish an ASEAN-US Center in Washington DC, facilitating exchanges between people, businesses, and scholars of ASEAN and the US.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and US Vice President Kamala Harris
Japan North
In 2022, the US will be ASEAN's largest investment partner, with a total foreign direct investment of 36.5 billion USD, and ASEAN's second largest trading partner with a total two-way trade turnover of 420.4 billion USD. In the coming time, the two sides agreed to promote trade and investment exchanges, stabilize supply chains, improve medical capacity, and expand cooperation in the application of science and technology, develop sustainable infrastructure, digital transformation, energy, etc.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stressed that ASEAN and the US are entering a new era of cooperation with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework set to be established at the end of 2022, and need to coordinate to implement an effective, substantive and mutually beneficial relationship. The two sides need to quickly make economic and trade cooperation a pillar and science, technology and innovation a driving force to promote this relationship.
Specifically, coordinate to promote harmonious and sustainable trade, stabilize supply chains, limit anti-dumping measures, subsidies and unnecessary measures on export products, which directly impact people's jobs and livelihoods.
In order to build a sustainable future for more than 1 billion people, the Prime Minister suggested that ASEAN coordinate with the US to effectively implement the ASEAN-US Future initiatives on health, education, energy, environment, climate change , and sustainable development.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister also asked the US to promote cooperation and support Vietnam in responding to climate change, implementing the Partnership Declaration for a Just Energy Transition, and continuing to support the development of the Mekong sub-region through the Mekong-US Partnership mechanism, including ensuring sustainable development efforts in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. The ASEAN-US Summit adopted a Joint Statement on cooperation based on ASEAN's Indo-Pacific (AOIP) perspective.
Trusted partner, from heart to heart
The 26th ASEAN-Japan Summit on the same day adopted a Joint Statement establishing the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, marking a new development milestone on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of relations.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh talks with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio
Yang Jiang
At the conference, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio highlighted the importance of the Japan-ASEAN partnership of trust and heart-to-heart ties, with important achievements over the past five decades, contributing positively to peace, stability and sustainable prosperity in the region. He expressed his wish to welcome ASEAN leaders to the commemorative summit in Tokyo (Japan) next December. This is a "golden opportunity" to look back on the past 50 years and set out directions, create new momentum, and develop bilateral relations strongly in the future.
ASEAN-Japan cooperation has achieved many positive results. Since the beginning of the year, Japan has been ASEAN's fourth largest trade partner and second largest investment partner. Trade turnover reached 268.5 billion USD, up 11.2% over the same period last year. Total investment capital from Japan reached 26.7 billion USD, up 27.7% over the same period last year. ASEAN also highly appreciated Japan's additional contribution of 100 million USD to the ASEAN-Japan Integration Fund.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that as an ASEAN member and a strategic partner of Japan, Vietnam is committed to making every effort to contribute to deepening the relationship, making it more effective and practical. He suggested making economic cooperation a key pillar and driving force for the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Japan needs to facilitate ASEAN countries’ exports to its market and support regional enterprises to participate more deeply in the supply chain of Japanese and global enterprises.
Vietnam and ASEAN countries have been and will facilitate the operations of more than 15,000 Japanese enterprises. The Prime Minister hopes that Japanese strategic investors will join hands with ASEAN to further promote emerging and potential cooperation areas such as green economy, digital economy, circular economy, etc.
Emphasizing that the comprehensive strategic partnership should aim for a sustainable development future for the people, the Prime Minister welcomed and affirmed his readiness to realize the idea of building the region into an innovation center. After the conference, ASEAN and Japanese leaders issued a joint statement on cooperation based on ASEAN's AOIP perspective.
At the 24th ASEAN-Korea Summit, speaking on behalf of ASEAN as the coordinator of ASEAN-Korea relations, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that the strategic partnership and comprehensive cooperation will continue to be strengthened. At the same time, he welcomed the proposal of the ASEAN-Korea Solidarity Initiative (KASI) by Korea to enhance bilateral relations.
Looking forward to the 35th anniversary of ASEAN-Korea relations in 2024, the Prime Minister suggested that both sides should make joint efforts to open a new journey with a longer vision and higher goals.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister emphasized the need to create a major shift in economic cooperation, promoting trade and investment in a balanced and sustainable direction. At the same time, he hoped that Korea would further open its market to export goods such as agricultural, aquatic products, and seasonal fruits from ASEAN countries...
President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol thanked Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for Vietnam's important contributions as a coordinator in promoting the strong development of ASEAN-Korea relations in recent times. Korea is currently ASEAN's fifth largest trade and investment partner, with two-way trade turnover of 222.8 billion USD and total FDI from Korea reaching 12.7 billion USD in 2022. Leaders of the two sides adopted the ASEAN-Korea Joint Statement on cooperation based on AOIP.
Developing the ASEAN+3 electric vehicle ecosystem
The 26th ASEAN+3 Summit (China, Japan, South Korea) on the afternoon of September 6 reaffirmed the importance of ASEAN+3 cooperation for peace, stability, cooperation and development. In 2022, trade between ASEAN and +3 partners increased by 10.2%, reaching 1,213 billion USD. Meanwhile, FDI from +3 partners into ASEAN reached 54.8 billion USD, accounting for 24.5% of total FDI into ASEAN.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his hope that ASEAN+3 will play an active and effective role in proposing feasible solutions and jointly overcoming current difficulties and challenges. ASEAN+3 needs to coordinate to promote economic, trade, investment exchanges and multilateral linkages, including effectively implementing ASEAN+1 FTAs with each partner, China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the RCEP Agreement.
The Prime Minister suggested that ASEAN+3 expand cooperation areas, especially digital transformation, digital economy, e-commerce, Fintech, AI, green finance, green technology, etc. For its part, Vietnam is ready to coordinate and promote the Mekong-Lancang, Mekong-Japan and Mekong-Korea cooperation frameworks, effectively contributing to the sustainable development of the Mekong sub-region. The ASEAN+3 Summit adopted the Declaration on the Development of the Electric Vehicle Ecosystem.
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