Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (Source: VNA)
Ottawa (VNA) – The Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Canada have agreed to promotecooperation across three pillars – politics-security, economy, andsocio-culture, during the 16th ASEAN-Canada Dialogue at deputy foreignministerial level.
The dialogue, held on March 25and 26 in Canada’s capital of Ottawa, is an annual meeting in the framework ofthe ASEAN-Canada dialogue relations.
The Vietnamese delegation to theevent was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, who is head of the country’sSOM ASEAN.
At thedialogue, the two sides shared positive assessment of the progress inASEAN-Canada relations, particularly the implementation of the Plan of Action to implement the Joint Declaration onASEAN-Canada Enhanced Partnership (2016-2020) and the Joint Declaration onTrade and Investment.
So far the two sides have completed 86 percent of lines ofactions stipulated in the Plan of Action. Canada is now the 9th largest trade partner of ASEAN with two-way trade reaching 13.8 billion USD in2017. Canada is also the 8th largest investors in ASEAN with totalinvestment of 954 million USD.
The two sides affirmed theirsupport for an open, just and rule-based international multilateral tradesystem, and agreed to continue discussing the possibility of an ASEAN-Canada freetrade agreement.
The two sides agreed on the prioritiesfor their cooperation in the time ahead, including trade-investment,connectivity, development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises,response to natural disasters and climate change, energy, education,people-to-people exchange, migrant labour, border management, cyber security,and fighting terrorism, extreme violence and cross-border crime.
Canada valued the increasinglyimportant role of ASEAN and stressed that as a trustful and long-time partnerof the bloc, Canada wants to upgrade its relationship with the bloc, especiallyto participate deeper in cooperative mechanisms initiated and led by ASEAN,particularly the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’Meeting Plus (ADMM ).
The North American country pledgedto continue assisting ASEAN in building the ASEAN Community, and affirmed itssupport of ASEAN’s central role in the regional structure.
The ASEAN appreciated Canada’scommitment to the Southeast Asian region and asked Canada to continue helpingASEAN in strengthening connectivity, implementing the Master Plan for ASEANConnectivity to 2025, narrowing development gap in the region, developing humanresources, and upholding its role in the forming regional structure.
The bloc urged effective coordinationbetween ASEAN and Canada at regional and international forums and in respondingto emerging challenges.
The 16th ASEAN-CanadaDialogue also discussed prospects of global economic development and risingchallenges such as terrorism, extreme violence, cross-border crime, climatechange, and natural disasters.
ꦡ Canada expressed its support ofASEAN’s principled stance on the importance of maintaining peace, stability,security and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea. The countryalso underlined its backing of dialogue and trust building, self-restraint andnon-militarisation, while protesting unilateral actions that cause tension inthe East Sea. Canada advocated the settlement of disputes by peaceful measureson the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Lawof the Sea, and the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on theConduct of Parties on the East Sea (DOC) along with the building of a bindingCode of Conduct on the East Sea.
