Seoul (VNA) – Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc and a Vietnamese
delegation attended the eighth Foreign Ministerial Meeting (FMM-8) of the Forum
for East Asia – Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), which took place in Busan
city, the Republic of Korea (RoK) on August 31.
The
event, themed “One Vision, New Action”, attracted the participation of 36
member countries from the two regions.
Speaking
at the event, Ngoc said Vietnam supports measures and action plans to strengthen
regulations and improve the operation efficiency of FEALAC.
In
the near future, the forum should prioritise strengthening internal
connectivity via raising responsibility of member states, expanding cooperation
with regional and global financial – banking organisations, increasing the
scale and number of regional and inter-regional-scale projects, especially
those regarding sustainable development, food and energy security, climate
change response and water resources management, he said.
The
participants adopted the Busan Declaration which described the forum as the
only inter-governmental cooperation mechanism connecting East Asia and Latin
America together which account for 38 percent of the global gross domestic
product and one third of the global trade.
Participants
agreed to establish a key group comprising six coordinating countries from the
two regions and the FEALAC Trust Fund which will be run by the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia (ESCAP) and the Pacific and the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The
meeting also passed the new action plan of the FEALAC with the three pillars of
strengthening operating mechanism of FEALAC, promoting projects at the national
and trans-national level, bolstering ties with regional and global
organisations while approving reports on reviewing the tenure of the 18th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) and Working Groups.
The
FMM-9 is scheduled for 2019 and Laos will host the SOM-19 in 2018.
During
the stay, Ngoc met with Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Marcelo Faurie,
Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Patti Londonno Jaramillo, Chilean
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Edgardo Riveros Marin, Deputy Minister for
Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Republic of Korea Choi Jong-moon, and
Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Nakane Kazuyuki.
At
meetings, both sides agreed on measures to boost bilateral ties, especially
facilitating visits at all levels, maintaining existing cooperation mechanisms
and refining the legal framework for coordination via negotiations and signing
of cooperation documents, particularly in the fields of economy, trade,
investment, agriculture, culture, science-technology and training.
On
multilateral collaboration, these countries expressed wish to further tighten
joint work with Vietnam at international organisations, especially at the
United Nations. They pledged to actively consider Vietnam’s request to support
its bid to run for a seat at the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure
and the position of the UNESCO General Director for 2017-2021.
Earlier
on August 30, the SOM-18 and meetings of the four Working Groups on
Socio-Political Cooperation and Sustainable Development; Culture, Youth, Gender
and Sports; Trade, Investment, Tourism, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises;
Science-Technology, Renovation and Education took place from August 29-30.-VNA