Jakarta (VNA) – The Ambassador of the Republic ofKorea (RoK) to ASEAN, Lim Sungnam, has appreciated Vietnam’s cohesive andresponsive leadership in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as Chair ofASEAN in 2020.

The ambassador granted an interview to the Vietnam NewsAgency (VNA)'s reporter in Jakarta following the ASEAN-RoK Ministerial Meeting, the ASEAN Plus ThreeForeign Ministers’ Meeting and the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting,all held virtually this week.

Talking about the outcomes of these events, he said in termsof efforts to deal with COVID-19, ASEAN has been very inventive under theleadership of Vietnam to promote the ideas, such as the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund, the stockpile of medical supplies, as well as the Standard Operating Procedures for public health emergencies. 

He expressed his delight that all the participating countriesagreed upon the importance of these projects, and they will be working togetherto continue to deal with the COVID-19 down the road. 

Regarding economic measures, ASEAN reconfirmed the importanceof an ASEAN economic recovery plan which will be reported to the leaders thisNovember, Lim said, adding that ASEAN and dialogue partners, including the RoK,will work together for the rapid economic recovery of ASEAN in the middle ofthe COVID-19 pandemic. 

He noted the RoK very much appreciates the support of theASEAN foreign ministers for the need to expedite the essential travel, inparticular by business people, because without expeditious business travellersand trips, not just within ASEAN but also between ASEAN and the dialoguepartners, it is almost impossible to have the rapid economic recovery.

According to the diplomat, the meetings was also a useful andtimely opportunity to have wide-ranging discussions on a variety of peace andsecurity issues, including non-traditional security issues like terrorism,cyber security and illicit drugs.

He highlighted the RoK’s appreciation of ASEAN’s support forthe resumption of dialogue process on the Korean Peninsula.

With regard to the East Sea issue, Lim made threesuccinct points about the RoK’s position on the issue: peace and stability inthe East Sea is very important, the freedom of navigation and overflight in andover the waters is very important to the RoK as well, and disputes should beresolved peacefully through dialogue.

In the interview, Lim said the RoK is an important strategicpartner of ASEAN, and it has been doing its utmost to work together with ASEANin the joint fight against COVID-19. 

More specifically, the RoK has been the first country amongASEAN dialogue partners to contribute 1 million USD to the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund. It has also contributed 5 million USD to the bloc for enhancingthe COVID-19 detection capacity of all the member states. 

He added that the RoK will continue to work together withASEAN, including Vietnam, for instance, by establishing the RoK-ASEAN healthministerial meeting in the near future. The RoK can do more, not just inresponse to COVID-19 but also any other future public health emergencies, the ambassador said.

He also said the RoK would like to see more or increasedown the road, not just for trade, but also for investment and tourism betweenthe RoK and ASEAN, and that it very much hopes that it can have a fast trackentry programme with every ASEAN member sooner rather than later.

In terms of Vietnam’s role as ASEAN Chair, Limheld that in the history of ASEAN, 2020 might be recorded as the mostdifficult year for the operation of ASEAN diplomacy, apparently becauseCOVID-19. 

In this context, Vietnam has shown exemplary leadership forvarious ASEAN meetings and initiatives, and it has shown indeed cohesive andresponsive leadership in dealing with the pandemic, he said.

In that regard, the Vietnamese Mission to ASEAN in Jakartaand Ambassador Tran Duc Binh have played an instrumental role in promoting anexpediting interaction between ASEAN and dialogue partners. One example of thatleadership was the special summit on COVID-19 held in April, the diplomatnoted. 

He also expressed his hope to see the continued leadership ofVietnam for all those important ASEAN meetings, including the November summit,and if the COVID-19 situation could be stabilised in the near future, he looksforward to the convening of that summit not online, but face to face./.