ASEAN determined to build community

VietNamNet Bridge – In his opening speech of the 16^th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi on April 8, Prime Minister proposed that ASEAN should improve the quality of its “unity in diversity” to achieve its goal of forming the ASEAN Community.

The ASEAN Summit attracts high-ranking officials of member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Secretary General of ASEAN, representatives of pan-governmental agencies, foreign diplomatic agencies and international organizations.

The Thai Prime Minister was not in attendance due to the state of emergency in Thailand.

ASEAN is looking forward to developing a strong community like the European Union by 2015, with a common charter. After decades, ASEAN is now a coherent politic-economic entity with ten members.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung, Chair of ASEAN 2010, said that ASEAN needs to exert more efforts to bring the ASEAN Charter to life. He also emphasized implementation of agreements to forge an ASEAN Community.

Economic recovery and sustainable development are among top priorities of ASEAN. The Chair stated that ASEAN should promote economic association, seek a suitable model of sustainable development and strengthen East Asian economic-financial cooperation.

PM Dung also emphasized the design of a comprehensive plan on ASEAN connections to create more close ties in terms of infrastructure, transportation and information technology, especially in the Greater sub-Mekong Region.

He suggested issuing a joint statement on recovery and sustainable development to show ASEAN’s commitments and action plans. He also called for cooperation to cope with climate change, environment regression, plus natural calamities and diseases, which directly threaten the lives of people in the region.

The Vietnamese PM also called for ASEAN to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in politics and security to promote peace and stability in Southeast Asia and in Asia-Pacific, as well as to boost cooperation within ASEAN and between ASEAN and its partners to confront non-traditional security challenges like terrorism, transnational crime and sea security.

Some pictures of 16^th ASEAN Summit:

Xuan Linh – Le Anh Dung (by vietnamnet)