35th ASEAN-US Dialogue

Following the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM) on March 6, Ambassador Vu Ho, Acting Head of ASEAN SOM Vietnam, led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the 35th ASEAN-US Dialogue, the 25th ASEAN-India SOM, ASEAN+3 SOM (with China, Japan, South Korea), and East Asia Summit SOM (with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the US, India, Australia, New Zealand) on March 7-8, 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Conferences reviewed and agreed on the direction of cooperation between ASEAN and its Partners and reviewed preparations for the Foreign Ministers' and High-level Meetings between ASEAN and its Partners in 2023.

ASEAN countries requested Partners to promote their potential and strengths, promote cooperation and effectively support ASEAN in building the community, and contribute to peace, stability and common prosperity in the region. Partners reaffirmed their support for ASEAN's central role in leading dialogue and cooperation in the region, committed to participating in and contributing constructively to ASEAN-led mechanisms as well as shaping an open, inclusive, transparent regional structure based on international law.

Supporting ASEAN's cooperation priorities this year, the Partners also proposed many measures for extensive and diverse cooperation. The US and India committed to working with ASEAN to substantially and effectively implement the new Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships established with ASEAN in the past year. Within the framework of ASEAN+3 and EAS, the Partners proposed promoting market opening, trade liberalization, ensuring smooth economic -trade-investment relations, expanding cooperation in digital transformation, energy, food security, green and sustainable development and climate change response; strengthening regional health capacity in the face of future disease outbreaks, facilitating the expansion of people-to-people exchanges and post-pandemic connectivity; and pledging to allocate resources for sub-regional cooperation and narrowing the gap within ASEAN.

Sharing regional and international issues of mutual concern, the countries emphasized that the complex, profound and unpredictable changes in the geopolitical and geo-economic picture in the region are posing great challenges to ASEAN as well as cooperation mechanisms chaired by ASEAN. Accordingly, ASEAN and its Partners need to maintain dialogue, build trust, comply with international law, the values and principles of the United Nations Charter, the ASEAN Charter, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC); restrain and avoid allowing disagreements and contradictions to become conflicts, affecting the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation efforts in the region. ASEAN welcomes Partners to support the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) as well as effectively and substantively implement cooperation in the region.

The Partners supported ASEAN's role and efforts in recent times in assisting Myanmar in finding a feasible and sustainable solution to the current crisis through the implementation of the ASEAN Leaders' Five-Point Consensus; reaffirmed support for ASEAN's principled stance on the East Sea, fully and effectively implementing the DOC and promptly building an effective and substantive COC in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.

Speaking at the Conferences, Ambassador Vu Ho shared the priorities and cooperation measures between ASEAN and its Partners, including the US, India, ASEAN+3 cooperation and East Asia cooperation, in which it is necessary to promote appropriate strengths and necessary resources to accelerate recovery and growth efforts in the region, narrow the development gap and develop sub-regions, including the Mekong sub-region.

The Ambassador emphasized that the current complex and changing context requires countries to promote a culture of dialogue and cooperation, share common points, cooperate equally and for mutual benefit, and take greater responsibility in dealing with common challenges, consolidate an open, transparent, inclusive regional structure, and uphold international law, stabilize relations between major countries, and not affect the common development goals and efforts of the region, creating a foundation for long-term and sustainable peace.

Regarding the East Sea, the Ambassador shared opinions at the meetings, and reaffirmed ASEAN's principled stance, emphasizing the importance of complying with international law and UNCLOS 1982; supporting the full and effective implementation of the DOC, promoting negotiations to build an effective, substantive COC in accordance with international law and UNCLOS 1982. The Ambassador emphasized that ASEAN and China promoting the COC negotiation process in 2023 is a testament to the determination of the parties to build trust, towards building the East Sea into a sea of peace and cooperation.

ASEAN Chair 2023 Indonesia announced that it will host the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings with Partners in July 2023 and the ASEAN Summits with Partners in September 2023.

Source link