On the afternoon of April 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference on the ASEAN Future Forum 2024 (ASEAN Future Forum - AFF) scheduled to take place on April 23.
The initiative to organize the ASEAN Future Forum was announced by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the 43rd ASEAN Summit (Jakarta, Indonesia, September 2023). This is a new idea of Vietnam with the desire to contribute with member countries, friends, partners of ASEAN and all classes of ASEAN people to promote and shape the future development path for ASEAN.
At the press conference, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet said that after nearly 6 decades of existence and development, ASEAN is preparing to enter a new stage of development, after completing the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. The world and regional context is changing rapidly and complexly, posing many opportunities and chances, along with significant challenges. ASEAN countries themselves are also facing many different choices in development strategies as well as visions for ASEAN, the region and the world.
The new situation raises many questions for ASEAN now and in the future: How to maintain its central role and adapt to changes in the region and the world? How to balance and harmonize the concerns and interests of its members? How to balance innovation and preserve ASEAN's core values?
The Deputy Minister said that the idea of organizing the ASEAN Future Forum is part of the efforts of Vietnam and ASEAN countries to create a forum to discuss and seek answers to the above questions.
The forum will be a channel to provide ideas and initiatives for the process of building the ASEAN vision to 2045; representing the voice and contribution of the region to the effort to orient the future development of the world through the United Nations Future Summit (held next September).
This is also Vietnam's specific contribution to the common effort to build a people-centered ASEAN community; practically implementing the policy of promoting and elevating multilateral diplomacy.
"We expect the ASEAN Future Forum to become an annual event, opening a series of annual forums next year," the Deputy Minister shared.
Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet said that the ASEAN Future Forum will be an open forum with the participation of both government officials and scholars. This is a large-scale, high-level multilateral activity with the participation of over 200 delegates, including senior leaders of several ASEAN countries and partners, representatives of international organizations and leading scholars in the region and the world.
The theme of this year's Forum is "Building a fast-growing, sustainable, people-centered ASEAN Community".
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is paying great attention to the forum and is expected to attend and deliver an opening speech. The opening session will be attended and delivered by senior leaders of Vietnam and other countries such as the current ASEAN Chair (Prime Minister of Laos) and the next (Prime Minister of Malaysia speaking via video recording), the ASEAN Secretary General, and the United Nations Secretary General (speaking via video recording).
The forum includes two discussion sessions: Towards a fast-growing and sustainable ASEAN Community; Promoting a comprehensive security approach for a people-centered ASEAN Community.
Two parallel working lunch sessions on the topics “Repositioning ASEAN Centrality” and “Seizing Development Opportunities in the Digital Age”.
Before that, on April 22, there will be a Dialogue between the ASEAN Secretary General and the youth. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said that this is one of the notable highlights of this year's forum. The Dialogue is an opportunity for Vietnamese and ASEAN youth to enhance their understanding of ASEAN, and share their expectations and recommendations for the future direction of ASEAN.
A strong message about a resilient, dynamic and resilient ASEAN
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