Proposing 3 breakthroughs and 3 enhancements for ASEAN-Australia relations.

Báo Đại Đoàn Kết•06/03/2024

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends and speaks at the Plenary Session of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit. Photo: Nhat Bac/VGP.

This conference provides an opportunity for ASEAN and Australian leaders to reflect on their relationship over the past half-century and to set a vision and direction for its future development; it also serves as a platform to exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern.

At the conference, leaders from both sides expressed satisfaction with the development of relations and the achievements of cooperation, especially since the establishment of the Strategic Partnership in 2014 and its upgrading to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021. Australia was the first Dialogue Partner and also one of the first partners to establish a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN. Bilateral relations are developing dynamically in all areas: political -security, economic, cultural-social, and development cooperation. In particular, in 2022, bilateral trade reached US$101.08 billion, an increase of nearly 20% compared to 2021; foreign direct investment from Australia into ASEAN reached US$2.01 billion, a 6.5-fold increase compared to 2021, nearly reaching pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels...

Speaking at the plenary session, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the special significance of the Conference; highly appreciated the close and long-standing relationship between ASEAN and Australia and Australia's cooperation and support for ASEAN over the past 50 years. The Prime Minister proposed three breakthroughs and three enhancements for ASEAN-Australia relations in the coming period.

Accordingly, ASEAN and Australia need to: achieve breakthroughs in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, striving to double bilateral trade turnover in the next 10 years; achieve breakthroughs in human resource development cooperation, especially high-quality human resources and labor cooperation; propose that ASEAN and Australia soon establish a consultation mechanism to exchange specific measures; achieve breakthroughs in cooperation on science and technology, innovation, focusing on the development of the digital economy, green transformation, circular economy, and emerging sectors such as semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence; propose organizing a High-Level ASEAN-Australia Forum on the Digital Economy to exchange cooperation opportunities, including the possibility of negotiating an ASEAN-Australia Digital Economy Agreement.

The three areas of enhancement include: strengthening political trust, cooperation to ensure regional peace and security, promoting a culture of dialogue and cooperation, fostering confidence-building and preventive diplomacy, and encouraging major powers to make responsible contributions to the region; strengthening sub-regional cooperation, narrowing the development gap for inclusive and sustainable development, especially in strategic infrastructure connectivity projects, helping to create positive socio-economic changes in poor and underdeveloped sub-regions of ASEAN; and strengthening cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, leveraging the strengths of over 1 million people of ASEAN origin, including over 350,000 people of Vietnamese origin in Australia, contributing to increased understanding, empathy, and connection, especially between the younger generations of both sides, thereby consolidating a long-term and strong social foundation for the relationship.

At the closed-door meeting, in the spirit of sharing vision, converging resources, and acting together for a peaceful, stable, and sustainably developed Indo-Pacific region in the future, the Prime Minister also proposed a "three-pronged approach" between ASEAN and Australia to promote a regional vision with three aspects. These include jointly building a united and resilient region capable of withstanding shocks and fluctuations from both internal and external sources, and effectively leveraging new and disruptive trends such as innovation, digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, sharing economy, and artificial intelligence… to accelerate comprehensive, sustainable, and inclusive growth, ensuring that no one is left behind.

Secondly, we must jointly promote a region that respects international law and rules-based conduct, in which countries adhere to the United Nations Charter, international law, respect ASEAN's rules and norms of conduct, and promote the development of new rules and norms of conduct, including a truly substantive and effective Code of Conduct, contributing to making the South China Sea a sea of peace, stability, cooperation, and development.

Thirdly, we must jointly build and shape an open, inclusive regional structure that promotes multilateralism, with ASEAN playing a central role and serving as a core factor in bringing together and harmonizing the interests of major powers.

At the conclusion of the conference, the leaders of both sides adopted the “ASEAN-Australia Leaders’ Vision Statement – Partnership for Peace and Prosperity” and the “Melbourne Declaration – Partnership for the Future,” outlining a vision for the future and directions for the development of relations in all areas in the coming period.

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