ASEAN ministerial meeting concludes with significant outcome

The 49^th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) has concluded in Vientiane, Laos, with many essential results following a series of discussions between officials from the bloc’s member states and its partners.

The event, which commenced on Saturday last week, officially ended on Tuesday in the Lao capital.

Speaking at a press conference, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung, who led the country’s delegation of senior officials, considered the meeting a success after ASEAN member nations issued a joint statement on several regional and international matters, including that in the East Vietnam Sea.

ASEAN is short for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is a political and economic organization whose members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“As there had been many opinions stating that the joint announcement could not be reached prior to the meeting, the achievement was even more important, indicating that members of the bloc did share many mutual interests,” Trung said.

The topic of the East Vietnam Sea was widely discussed in almost every meeting between senior officials and foreign ministers from ASEAN member states and other partner nations, he continued.

Answering a question from Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, the deputy minister affirmed that some ASEAN member countries expressed their concern over particular activities in the East Vietnam Sea, namely land reformation, in the joint statement while others did not.

However, all nations agreed that the situation in the maritime area in recent times had not been normal, he added.

Within the framework of the event, the 23^rd ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) between the bloc’s members and 17 partners was convened on Tuesday.

Delegates at the gathering agreed to boost cooperation between law enforcement agencies in the seaway under the proposal of Vietnam.

On Monday, ASEAN announced a joint statement with regard to the East Vietnam Sea.

"We remain seriously concerned about recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some ministers on the land reclamations and escalation of activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region," the ASEAN communiqué said.

It is important to avoid militarization of the region for freedom of navigation to be maintained, it added.

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