Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The summits were the first in a series of high-level activities between ASEAN and its partners on Nov. 18-19.

The summits focused on reviewing cooperative results and mapping out an orientation for future cooperation between ASEAN and each partner.
 
At the ASEAN-China Summit, PM Dung of Vietnam in capacity as the ASEAN-China relations coordinating country, asked the two sides to focus resources to implement the Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period on the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity.
 
The two sides should give priority to economic cooperation, especially full implementation of commitments within the framework of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and efficiently promote the ASEAN-China Centre in supporting the enhancement of trade and investment ties, striving to meet the target of 500 billion USD in two-way trade by 2015, he said.
 
The PM emphasised the need to accelerate people-to-people and socio-cultural exchanges and increase cooperation on natural disaster management and emergency response. He proposed China offer practical assistance to ASEAN.
 
Regarding the East Sea issue, PM Dung affirmed that maintaining peace, stability and navigation security and safety in the East Sea is the common aspiration and interest of both ASEAN and China .
 
He highly valued the two sides engaging in continued dialoguesand consultations on the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), particularly the recent adoption of the guidelines and resumption of the senior officials meeting on DOC. He asked the two sides to continue fully implementing DOC toward the building of a Code of Conduct (COC) to ensure peace, stability, cooperation and confidence building in the region, solve peacefully disputes based on international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).
 
This year’s summit also marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN-China Dialogue Partnership.

On the occasion, the two sides’ leaders issued a statement on the ASEAN-China celebration and attended a ceremony to inaugurate the ASEAN-China Centre.

At the ASEAN-Japan Summit, the two sides’ leaders highly valued efficiency in ASEAN-Japan cooperation, particularly the implementation of the Plan of Action on the ASEAN-Japan Partnership.
 
ASEAN acknowledged Japan ’s support and assistance to the association in building the Community, regional connectivity, narrowing the development gap, sub-regional cooperation, including the Mekong-Japan cooperation in socio-economic development, environmental protection and sustainable use of water resources.
 
The group agreed to join hands with Japan to continue promoting all-round cooperation, particularly in economics, trade, science and technology, education, disaster management, navigation security and safety based on international law and UNCLOS 1982

Addressing the summit, PM Dung highlighted the great outcomes from the two sides’ priority on promoting economic, trade and investment cooperation, effective implementation of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP), helping ASEAN narrow the development gap and regional connectivity, including cooperation programmes on the Mekong subregional development, the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam triangle development, the East-West Economic Corridor and Initiative on ASEAN Integration.
 
At the end of the summit, the leaders approved a joint statement on enhancement of the ASEAN-Japan Strategic Partnership for peace, stability and prosperity and an Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period.
 
At the ASEAN-RoK Summit, leaders of the two sides expressed their pleasure with important results in implementing the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKRTA), subregional cooperation and cooperation in information technology, environment and climate change.
 
They agreed to continue efforts to implement the ASEAN-RoK Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period with a focus on economics, trade, investment, finance, linkages between the two sides and improvement of capacity to respond to emerging challenges.
 
PM Dung spoke highly of the lifting of the ASEAN-RoK relations the level of strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in October 2010, saying that this is an important foundation and a strong momentum for deepening the bilateral cooperation.
 
He proposed to actively implement the ASEAN-RoK Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period with priority in financial assistance to increase regional connectivity, improve capacity of natural disaster management and climate change and raise two-way trade to 150 billion USD by 2015.
 
The PM highly valued the organisation of the first Mekong-RoK foreign ministers’ meeting in Seoul in October, 2011, which offered a mechanism to increase cooperation and linkages between the two sides.
 
He shared efforts on negotiation and peacefully solving disputes, a denuclearisation of Korean peninsula, improvement of inter-Korean ties and supported the resumption of the six-party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
 
At the ASEAN-US summit, leaders shared views on recent progress in bilateral ties, with three summits held since 2009. They agreed to bring their ties to a strategic partnership, continue to give resources and high priority to the implementation of the Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period, and boost cooperation in economic trade, investment, science and technology, connectivity, navigation security and safety and other transnational issues.
 
The US pledged to support the building of the ASEAN Community, regional connectivity and the central role of the group and agreed to promote sub-regional cooperation through the mechanism of the foreign ministers’ meeting between lower Mekong countries and the US .
 
Prime Minister Dung urged the two sides to work closely and allocate necessary sources to carry out agreements, particularly the implementation of the Action Plan for the 2011-2015 period.
 
He affirmed Vietnam ’s support to boost ASEAN-US relations in both multilaterally and bilaterally for the benefit of all parties and for peace, security, stability and cooperation in the region.
 
The ASEAN and US leaders issued a joint statement on the 3 rd ASEAN-US Summit and approved a Plan of Action for the 2011-2015 period on implementing the ASEAN-US Partnership for Peace and Prosperity at the end of the summit./