Launch Ceremony of the ASEAN-China People-to-People Exchange Year 2024

On February 2, 2024, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the Launch Ceremony of the ASEAN-China People-to-People Exchange Year 2024 in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. Attending the ceremony were Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Councilor of China, Kham Di Cam; Deputy Prime Minister of Laos Kikeo Khaykhamphithoon; and representatives from the governments, ministries, and local authorities of ASEAN countries and China.

The launching ceremony is one of the key activities implementing the decisions of the 26th ASEAN-China Summit (Jakarta, September 2023) aimed at promoting people-to-people exchanges, deepening cultural exchanges, and strengthening friendship between ASEAN countries and China.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Kham Di Cam affirmed that the ASEAN-China friendship is a model of the most successful neighborly relations in the Asia -Pacific region. She expressed her expectation that many cooperation programs in youth, education, culture, tourism, media, science and technology, etc., will be promoted to further strengthen and deepen the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and bring practical benefits to over 2 billion people on both sides. On the ASEAN side, in his capacity as ASEAN Chair in 2024, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune highly appreciated the significance of the ASEAN-China People-to-People Cooperation Year and expressed ASEAN's commitment to strengthening cooperation and exchanges, fostering closer ties between the people of both sides, thereby promoting economic and trade cooperation opportunities between ASEAN countries and China, and contributing to the strong recovery efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on behalf of the Vietnamese delegation at the Launch Ceremony, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet affirmed that ASEAN and Vietnam always value and highly appreciate people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and China. The Deputy Minister believes that the strong friendship, built on geographical proximity and cultural similarities between the people of ASEAN and China, is an indispensable catalyst for this partnership. The Deputy Minister emphasized that Vietnam, as an active member of ASEAN, will continuously promote comprehensive exchanges in various areas of cooperation, thereby creating new momentum for expanding and deepening the relationship, contributing to the substantive implementation of the newly established Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two sides.

Within the framework of this Launch Ceremony, numerous cultural exchange and promotion activities, art performances, and food festivals are organized to introduce and promote the unique cultural values of ASEAN countries and China to the public.

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