successful organisation of ASEAN ministerial meetings

Da Nang (VNA) – The successful organisation of ASEAN ministerial meetings in Da
Nang on January 13-14 was a good start for Vietnam as Chair of ASEAN in 2010, said
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem.

The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) Retreat and other related meetings were the
first to be held at ministerial level during the country’s term as Chair, Deputy
PM Khiem told reporters at the end of the meetings in Da Nang .

He said they had discussed and identified the bloc’s priorities, adding that all
were in favour of Vietnam’s theme for this year, “Towards ASEAN Community: From
Vision to Action”.

The member countries agreed that 2010 needs to be a year for action to put in place
frameworks and goals, including the roadmap to build the ASEAN Community adopted at
the 15 th ASEAN Summit last October and the ASEAN Charter, which came into effect
in December 2008.

They said that apart from speeding up the programmes and plans in the ASEAN roadmap
for building a community and the ASEAN Charter, the bloc needs to focus on ideas for
enhancing regional links and stepping up cooperation when responding to
trans-national issues such as natural disasters, climate change and economic
recovery in the post-crisis period.

ASEAN also needs to focus on suitable ways of maintaining its core role in the
region as well as raising its profile and voice in the international arena, added
Deputy PM Khiem.

In addition to reaching a consensus on ASEAN’s priorities for this year, the
meetings adopted a number of documents and made significant progress in coming up
with measures to bring ASEAN closer together, which was agreed upon at the 15 th
ASEAN Summit and termed ASEAN Connectivity.

The Ministers passed a set of regulations for the operations of a senior working
group to push forward ASEAN Connectivity, he said, adding that the group will focus
on promoting infrastructure, transport, telecommunications, information technology
and the opening up of borders for people and trade. This will then be expanded to
East Asia at a later date.

The results of the field trip made overland from Mukdahan in Thailand to Da Nang
in Vietnam via Savannakhet in Laos helped the ministers see with their own eyes
the potential for improving the transport network and the infrastructure of the
Mekong sub-region.

The foreign ministers also adopted in principle a draft protocol on a mechanism to
settle disputes amongst ASEAN countries to firm up regulations in the Charter’s
Provision 25. Subsequently ASEAN has put together a regulation on arbitration to
solve disputes, in line with the ASEAN Charter.

The meetings also discussed ideas on how to enhance relations with ASEAN’s
partners, which included holding a series of summits such as the annual summits
between ASEAN and China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India and the second summits
with Russia and the US.

The Ministers agreed to the appointment of ambassadors to the ASEAN from countries
outside the region, including Germany , Slovakia , Switzerland , Hungary ,
Pakistan and Morocco , bringing the total number of ambassadors to the bloc to
nearly 40.

They also expressed their sympathies for the Haitian government and people over the
devastation caused by the earthquake on January 12, which highlighted ASEAN’s
positive and responsible attitude when responding to the international community’s
efforts to deal with natural disasters.-Enditem