(VOVWORLD) - Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said Tuesday that ASEAN should strongly promote the strength of solidarity, unity, strategic autonomy, and its central role plus the support and respect of partners to affirm its mission of maintaining peace, stability and development in the region.
 Participants at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting pose for a group photo. |
Minister Son made the remarks while attending the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the 33rd ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) Meeting, and the 26th ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Council Meeting in Indonesia on Monday.
He underscored the need to increase sub-regional cooperation, in which ASEAN should play a central role in linking sub-regional development with other joint cooperation programs of the bloc, promoting infrastructure, institutional, and people connectivity to create a growth engine for sub-regions and narrow the development gap.
Minister Son further reiterated ASEAN's principled stance on the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea), with the focus on the responsibility of each country toward turning the East Sea into a sea of peace, safety, and stability.
 Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son (second from left) at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Indonesia, May 9, 2023. |
He called on countries involved to maintain dialogues, strengthen trust, settle disputes peacefully based on the governing international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Vietnam, together with ASEAN members and China, commit to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, trying to soon achieve a substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law.
Minister Son emphasized the need for constructive and pragmatic dialogue between the relevant parties in Myanmar to enhance trust-building and ensure that all solutions must be made by Myanmar and led by Myanmar.