Hanoi (VNA) – The 39th ASEANChiefs of Police Conference (ASEANAPOL) officially started in Hanoi on September18 under the theme “Honoured by Partnership, Sustained by Unification.”

The event aims to step up multinationalcooperation in the prevention and fight against emerging crimes in the regionsuch as illegal purchase and sale of narcotics, terrorism, weapon smuggling,human trafficking, credit card fraud, high-tech crime, illegal wildlife trade,and maritime crime.

It is attended by nearly 300 delegates fromASEAN member countries and ASEANAPOL’s 10 dialogue partners, namely Australia,China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, ASEANSecretariat, the International Criminal Police Organisation (InterPol), and theEuropean Police Office (Europol).

The participants also include delegates from ASEANAPOLobservers including Fiji, Timo-Leste, the National Crime Agency of the UK, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), andthe US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In opening the conference, Vietnamese Minister ofPublic Security General To Lam said with a population of over 640 million andgross domestic product (GDP) of nearly 3 trillion USD, the ASEAN plays acrucial role in defence, security, and economic development strategies of manypowerful countries in the world.

In addition to advantages, the Southeast Asianregion is facing a lot of challenges, including security and social ordermatters. Therefore, the role of law enforcement agencies of ASEAN countries,including the police forces, is extremely important in preventing and combatingcrimes as well as ensuring national security and social order and safety, Lamsaid.

Founded 40 years ago, ASEANAPOL has seenremarkable developments with 10 member countries, 10 dialogue partners and sixobservers. With such a large number of member countries and partners,ASEANAPOL’s cooperation to fight transnational crimes has significantlycontributed to the maintenance of national security and social order and safetyin regional countries.

During the conference, participants will focusdiscussion on cooperation in preventing and combating drug crime, terrorism,illegal trade of weapons, human trafficking, piracy, financial-banking crime,and high-tech crime.

The event is running in Hanoi from September 17to 19./.