Khiem attended a series of meetings, including a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers and their counterparts from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK), known as the ASEAN+3 forum. He also attended an unofficial consultative meeting of foreign minister of the East Asian Summit (EAS) as well as the wider ASEAN meeting with leaders from Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, the RoK, India, New Zealand, Russia and the US.
The Vietnamese official discussed his orientations for each co-operation framework, which focused on narrowing the development gap between countries in the region, building regional linkages as well as the ASEAN Community itself, effectively implementing the agreements and commitments, and paying due attention to developing potential areas such as economics, trade and investment as well as solving global challenges.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that ASEAN+3 and the EAS have become important models for regional co-operation. He welcomed the timely co-operation between ASEAN+3 and the EAS in coping with the global economic crisis and the A/H1N1 epidemic.
ASEAN+3 forum
He took the occasion to ask participating countries to support Vietnam’s initiative on setting up the East Asia Centre for Environmental Education, which was proposed at the first East Asia Environmental Ministers Meeting in Hanoi in October 2008.
At those meetings, dialogue partners pledged to further strengthen links among ASEAN members and boost co-operation in coping with challenges, especially in overcoming the global financial-economic crisis.
They also expressed their support for the central role of ASEAN in regional co-operation.
ASEAN-EU forum
ASEAN foreign ministers applauded dialogue partners for sending ambassadors to ASEAN, which they said reflected their keen desire for co-operative ties with ASEAN.
Participants in the ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers meeting and the unofficial consultative meeting among foreign ministers of the East Asia Summit countries reiterated their commitments to promoting co-operation within ASEAN as a group and with its three partner countries.
On the same day, ASEAN ministers and US Foreign Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a landmark non-aggression treaty and agreements on the implementation of measures in eight key areas listed in the Joint Vision Statement on the ASEAN-US Enhanced Partnership, which aims to assist the building of the ASEAN community by 2015.