Strongly promoting ASEAN's strategic strength to realize inclusive and sustainable goals

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivers a speech at the plenary session of the 47th ASEAN Summit. (Photo: Nhat Bac/VGP)

Before entering into the discussion, ASEAN leaders listened to speeches from the Chairman's guests, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, European Council President Antonio Costa and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

In their speeches, the Canadian Prime Minister, the President of the European Council, and the IMF Managing Director all shared the challenges the world is facing, and highly appreciated the role, position, and achievements of ASEAN in recent times, considering ASEAN as one of the models of multilateral cooperation, and at the same time proposed many priorities and measures to further strengthen cooperative relations.

The IMF Managing Director said that if ASEAN continues its current approach, prioritizing institutional reform, supporting private economic development, increasing intra-regional and partner trade, especially completely removing tariffs, it could help increase regional GDP by 4.3% and create 4 million new jobs.

ASEAN leaders shared their appreciation for the important and multifaceted achievements made during Malaysia's Chairmanship year, aiming to build a sustainable and inclusive Community, promote free trade, capital and human resource flows, and continuously expand and deepen relations with partners, including the signing of the Protocol to Upgrade the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area Agreement 3.0 and promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

At the same time, the leaders also shared about the difficulties, challenges and non-traditional risks that countries are dealing with such as climate change, natural disasters, epidemics, transnational crimes, and social problems such as poverty, inequality, and the growing gap between rich and poor.

Accordingly, the leaders emphasized the importance and determination to effectively implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and the approved strategic plans, towards building a united, self-reliant, and dynamic ASEAN Community with people at the center; at the same time, continue to prioritize cooperation to narrow the development gap, promote inclusive and sustainable development, accelerate digital transformation and address challenges related to climate change, thereby enhancing collective resilience for the region.

View of the plenary session of the 47th ASEAN Summit. (Photo: Nhat Bac/VGP)

The leaders also stressed that ASEAN needs to maintain solidarity, promote its central and leading role to continue contributing to peace and stability in the region. At the same time, ASEAN needs to continue to deepen existing partnerships and actively consider and expand relations with new partners.

In the international arena, ASEAN needs to continue to promote multilateralism, affirm the role of regional mechanisms in promoting dialogue, cooperation, building trust, and promoting ASEAN's role, voice and common contribution in addressing global issues. The leaders also affirmed to continue to support and assist Timor-Leste in fulfilling its obligations and membership criteria, and fully and effectively integrating into regional cooperation.

Regarding international and regional issues, the countries welcomed the signing of the peace agreement between Cambodia and Thailand, affirming that they will actively participate and support the effective implementation of the agreements. The countries highly appreciated the role and efforts of the Chair of Malaysia in promoting the implementation of the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar; agreed that the Consensus continues to be the main direction for ASEAN's engagement efforts in the coming time, in which priority is given to ceasefire and violence, resumption of dialogue and deployment of humanitarian aid to the people.

Regarding the East Sea, in the context of the situation continuing to have complicated developments and incidents, the countries emphasized the importance of maintaining solidarity, unity and common stance of ASEAN on the East Sea issue, affirming efforts to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon reach an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Malaysia on the important achievements during the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2025, the opening year for the realization of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045.

Warmly congratulating Timor-Leste on officially becoming the 11th member of the ASEAN family, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that this will inspire new confidence, new spirit and create new momentum for the development process of the Association; affirming that Vietnam will share experiences with Timor-Leste in connecting and deeply integrating into the regional cooperation process, including cooperation to narrow the development gap.

Emphasizing that “inclusiveness and sustainability” is ASEAN’s strategic choice and requirement in a volatile and uncertain world, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that ASEAN needs to strongly promote three sources of strategic strength to realize this goal.

Accordingly, first, ASEAN needs to strengthen solidarity and unity, thereby enhancing its overall strength and synchronously and effectively implementing ASEAN's strategies and action plans.

Second, ASEAN needs to promote its dynamic vitality, autonomy, and self-reliance, and strengthen intra-bloc connectivity on the basis of proactively and urgently implementing cooperation plans combined with regular reviews and adjustments to ensure smooth operation mechanisms; increase the proportion of intra-bloc trade and investment along with expanding regional and inter-regional cooperation frameworks.

ASEAN also needs to connect supply chains, new economic models on green, digital, circular, creative, solidarity to push back drugs and cybercrime; at the same time, more closely connect development spaces from sub-region to inter-region to create an open, dynamic and inclusive economic network, in which effectively promote the role of Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam cooperation, of which Vietnam will be the Chair of the Summit in 2026.

Emphasizing that “inclusiveness and sustainability” are ASEAN’s strategic choices and requirements in a volatile and uncertain world, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that ASEAN should strongly promote three sources of strategic strength to realize this goal. (Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac)

Third , ASEAN needs to make efforts to create innovation and creativity, through urgently completing new cooperation frameworks such as the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement and the ASEAN Digital Master Plan, promoting cooperation in data infrastructure development and cross-border data governance, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation, and researching the establishment of the ASEAN Innovation Center Network.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister announced that Vietnam will host the third ASEAN Future Forum in 2026 to incubate and nurture seeds of ideas for an inclusive and sustainable future for the region.

In the context of the world and the region continuing to experience many complex and unpredictable changes, the Prime Minister requested ASEAN to continuously make efforts to contribute to maintaining an environment of peace, security, stability and development, considering this a top priority.

Accordingly, ASEAN needs to make more efforts to maintain solidarity, unity and persevere in its principled and consistent stance on the East Sea issue, upholding compliance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS; urging relevant parties to soon reach an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS; and resolutely oppose actions that complicate the situation and change the status quo by force.

The Prime Minister also stressed that ASEAN needs to continue promoting the culture of dialogue and cooperation, resolving disputes and disagreements by peaceful means on the basis of the principles of the ASEAN Charter, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and international law; accordingly, he welcomed Cambodia and Thailand's persistence in dialogue on the basis of friendly neighborly relations and the spirit of the ASEAN community, committed to actively coordinating with members, and supporting the two countries to fully implement the agreements reached.

Regarding the situation in Myanmar, stressing that this is a test of ASEAN's prestige, cohesion and crisis management capacity, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that ASEAN engage more actively with relevant parties to promote ceasefire, dialogue and reconciliation, thereby creating a favorable foundation for an orderly, democratic, fair, transparent and inclusive general election.

The Prime Minister expressed his confidence in the experience and capacity of the Philippines, the 2026 ASEAN Chair, and affirmed that Vietnam will cooperate and support the Philippines in fulfilling the priorities of the 2026 ASEAN Chairmanship. He also expressed his hope that under the leadership of the Philippines and President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., ASEAN will be more innovative and creative to achieve many successes in building the Community, strengthening solidarity and the central role of ASEAN, bringing many positive benefits to people, businesses and localities.

Ha Thanh Giang

Source: https://nhandan.vn/phat-huy-manh-me-coi-nguon-suc-manh-chien-luoc-cua-asean-de-hien-thuc-hoa-muc-tieu-bao-trum-va-ben-vung-post918219.html