(VOVworld) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended summits between ASEAN and its partners including Japan, South Korea and China after the 23^rd ASEAN summit concluded on Wednesday afternoon in Brunei.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the 23rd ASEAN summit (Source: VNA)

 At the ASEAN-Japan summit, the Prime Minister said the two sides need to boost regional connectivity especially in infrastructure, people-to-people exchange, narrow the development gap and promote cooperation to deal with regional and global challenges such as terrorism, natural disaster management, climate change, security and freedom of maritime navigation, including the East China Sea issues. ASEAN and Japan strongly supported ASEAN and China’s continuation of dialogues, consultation and confidence building measures, while carrying out official negotiations to soon establish Code of Conduct for parties in the East Sea.

At the ASEAN-Republic of Korea summit, Prime Minister Dung said that in the near future, the two sides needed to promote cooperation in areas of priority including narrowing development gap, developing human resource, people exchange, the management and sustainable use of water, political security especially maritime security, and areas of non-traditional security such as energy and food. He stressed Vietnam attaches importance to the Mekong-Republic of Korea cooperation in the process of building the ASEAN Community. He added it was a great honor for Vietnam to organize the 2^nd Mekong-Republic of Korea Business Forum, scheduled for 2014, and hoped that Seoul would offer support and cooperation in the implementation of the activity.

At the 16^th ASEAN-China summit, the Vietnamese Prime Minister said ASEAN hopes that the Code of Conduct would make a significant contribution to assuring peace, security and maritime safety in the region.

On the same day, Mr. Dung attended the 1^st ASEAN-US summit, where he underlined the important role of ASEAN and the US in regional peace, security and development.