(VOVWORLD) -Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet, who is also head of Vietnam’s delegation to the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM), has attended a series of the bloc's meetings in Vientiane, Laos on Thursday and Friday.
 Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet attends the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM). Photo:VNA
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The events consisted of the SOM, the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ EXCOM), and the 17th ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group (ACCWG) on Timor-Leste's ASEAN Membership Application.
At the meetings, the Vietnamese deputy minister actively participated in and made significant contributions to the discussions, particularly on implementing the bloc’s priorities for 2024 and orientations for building a strategy to realize the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2045.
He lauded ASEAN's common approach to deepening relations with partners and promoting the signing of the Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty by nuclear weapon states (NWS). The official also highlighted the bloc’s role and approach in supporting Myanmar, including humanitarian assistance to its people.
The Deputy FM affirmed that ASEAN must maintain its common stance on the East Sea issue as outlined in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Maintaining and Promoting Stability in the Maritime Sphere in Southeast Asia dated December 30, 2023, particularly the principles of upholding international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), and exercising restraint and resolving disputes peacefully.