Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung led the Vietnamese delegation to the event. Participating countries emphasized the importance of the ASEAN-US Strategic partnership to regional peace and security and promised to promote their potential and strength to boost the cooperation. In his address, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung highlighted positive developments of the ASEAN-US bilateral ties and progress in ASEAN-China negotiation on the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea. He pointed a number of challenges including sovereignty disputes, construction and militarization activities, piracy, trans-national crimes, illegal fishing, and marine environmental pollution. He urged ASEAN, the US, and other partners to strengthen cooperation through the ASEAN Regional Forum, East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meetings, and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum. The Deputy Minister reiterated ASEAN’s stance of practicing restraint, non-militarization, peaceful settlement of disputes based on international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, full implementation of the Declaration on the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and soon finalization of the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea.