A Special Foreign Ministers’ Meeting took place in Beijing on August 29
to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh led a delegation to the event.
During the meeting, the ministers shared their positive views on the
comprehensive development and important achievements in bilateral
cooperation during the past decade in all fields, including politics,
economics, trade, investment, culture and people-to-people exchange.
At present, ASEAN-China cooperation has been
implemented deeply and widely through more than 40 mechanisms, with
two-way trade surpassing 400 billion USD last year, eight times higher
than that of 2003. China is now the largest trade partner of
ASEAN, while the latter the third largest of the former.
Total two-way investment also rose four times to 100 billion USD in
2012. The number of tourists travelling between the bloc and China
reached 15 million, a fivefold increase compared to that of 10 years
ago.
The ministers said the robust and
comprehensive development over the past time has made ASEAN-China
relations one of the key pillars in regional cooperation, positively
contributing to common peace, stability, development and prosperity.
They agreed that in the future, ASEAN and
China need to make use of the existing development impetus and
recorded achievements to lift their strategic partnership to a new
height to make greater contributions to regional peace, stability and
development.
On this basis, the two sides will
continue strengthening dialogue, consultations and cooperation in
politics, and security to reinforce mutual trust. They will also step up
economic, trade and investment cooperation and effectively implement
the ASEAN-China free trade agreement (FTA), and work closely to finalise
a regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) in East Asia ,
they said.
They will consider a proposal on upgrading their FTA, aiming for 500 billion USD in two-way trade by 2015.
The ministers underscored the need to further connectivity,
especially in infrastructure, and boost cultural and people-to-people
exchanges, while fostering links among enterprises, strengthening
maritime cooperation and coordination in coping with non-traditional
security issues such as climate change, natural disasters, pandemics,
transnational crimes, energy and food security.
They highlighted the necessity to work more closely to be well-prepared
for the 16 th ASEAN-China Summit in October, including the drafting of a
joint statement to fuel and guide the development of their strategic
partnership in the future.
The meeting also gave
much space to underline the significance of maintaining peace,
stability and maritime security, safety and freedom, as well as the
peaceful settlement of disputes in the East Sea based on the 1982 United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), the full and
effective implementation of the Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the
East Sea (COC) and the soon formation of a Code of Conduct (COC) in the
East Sea.
The ministers applauded the decision
to conduct the first official consultations at the Senior Officials’
Meeting (SOM) between ASEAN and China on COC scheduled for next month
in Suzhou , China .
Accordingly, ASEAN will
share its stance on the need to promptly build a binding COC stipulating
comprehensive principles to ensure peace and prevent conflicts as well
as the behaviours of each party on the basis of complying with
international law and the 1982 UNCLOS.
During the
conference and meetings between ASEAN foreign ministers and Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang and State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the Chinese side
affirmed its consistent policy of attaching importance to building
friendly neighbourliness and mutual beneficial cooperation with ASEAN.
It gives high priority to ASEAN in its foreign policy and supports the
group’s central role in the regional architecture. It also pledges to
continue backing ASEAN in its efforts to build community, implement
regional connectivity and narrow development gap.
China reiterates its policy of peaceful and friendly development,
creating a momentum for the development of the region as a whole and
ASEAN in particular.
Referring to exchanges, China
proposes the joint research of upgrading the ASEAN-China FTA, setting up
the Asian Credit Transfer System, Monetary Fund, and Financial and
Investment Fund in hope to fund infrastructure projects.
China affirms to continue cooperating with ASEAN in ensuring peace in
the East Sea and fully implementing the DOC towards the COC, thus
turning the East Sea into a sea of reliance, cooperation and
development.
Attending the meeting, Foreign Minister
Pham Binh Minh made positive assessments on the intensive and extensive
development of ASEAN-China cooperation.
That China has
become ASEAN’s first strategic partner, the first one joining the
Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and the
negotiations to establish the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area symbolises the
special relations between the two sides, laying an important foundation
for ceaseless development and great achievements in bilateral
cooperation.
The two sides should continue to
strengthen cooperation, mutual understanding and trust via consultation
and dialogue, the FM stressed.
China and ASEAN also
need to cooperate in building an ASEAN-centred regional architecture
suitable for peace, stability and development by promoting the East Asia
connectivity process, coordination in dealing with non-traditional
security challenges and enhancing maritime security cooperation, he
added.
He said the two sides should support the
strengthening of ASEAN-China connectivity, especially in infrastructure
development and transport connectivity, including the promotion of
Mekong basin cooperation and the initiative “Two corridors, one economic
belt”.
They should also foster cultural and
people-to-people exchanges and boost tourism, economic, trade and
investment cooperation by maximizing mechanisms such as ASEAN-China Free
Trade Area, ASEAN-China Centre, and China-ASEAN Expo, Minh noted.
The FM stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and
maritime security, safety and freedom in the East Sea, welcoming the
past progress between China and ASEAN.
He said that
the full and effective implementation of DOC and the early establishment
of COC will contribute to enhancing trust and ensuring peace, stability
and security in the region.
On this occasion, Foreign
Minister Minh held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi,
during which both sides spoke highly of the important outcomes of the
visits made by the two countries’ high-ranking leaders and new
developments in their relations.
They affirmed that
the two sides will continue working together to effectively realise
their leaders’ common perceptions, and an action programme on
implementing the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic cooperative
partnership in all fields.
They agreed to coordinate
in organising the second Vietnam-China Youth Festival in Guangxi in late
2013 and soon kick off construction of the Vietnam-China Friendship
Palace and establish a cultural centre in each country.
The two FMs also affirmed close coordination between the two sides to
ensure the success of the meeting between Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the
China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning next month, contributing to further
developing the two countries’ relations.
Regarding the
ASEAN-China relationship, FM Minh spoke highly of this special
ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, saying the ASEAN-China strategic
partnership has reaped many positive achievements over the past decade,
bringing practical benefits to both sides.
He affirmed that Vietnam will continue working closely with the Chinese side to further strengthen this partnership.
He also expressed his hope that through this special meeting, ASEAN
and China will review their cooperation over the past 10 years, as well
as work out directions to develop bilateral relationship in the time to
come.-VNA