The two leaders vowed to actively seek opportunities for economic cooperation towards this goal, and at the same time continue stepping up defense-security ties through maintaining joint working group of the two navies, accelerating the launch of a hot-line, organizing joint activities in search and rescue towards conducting joint patrols at sea. They also agreed that the two countries will accelerate negotiations for the early signing of an agreement on demarcation of their exclusive economic zones and an MoU on marine and fishery cooperation. Both sides committed to working closely together to strengthen solidarity and internal unity of ASEAN and to maintain consensus and ASEAN’s central role in regional issues, the East Sea issue and at regional and global forums.
They agreed to enhance cooperation to maintain peace, stability, security, maritime and aviation safety and freedom in the East Sea. Vice President Jusuf Kalla affirmed that Indonesia supports Vietnam in successfully fulfilling its role as Chair of APEC 2017.
At the ASEAN Secretariat headquarters, the Vietnamese Deputy PM said ASEAN has recorded significant achievements in maintaining its central role and has become an important forum for Southeast Asia and related countries to hold dialogue for the common goal of preserving peace, stability and sustainable development of the region, while providing support for its member countries.
He affirmed that Vietnam considers ASEAN the foundation of and one of the top priorities in its external policy and vows to work closely with member states to successfully build the ASEAN Community on all the economic and socio-cultural pillars and strengthen the bloc’s central role in the region.
The Vietnamese government is taking a range of measures to effectively implement contents set in the ASEAN Vision 2025, towards a resilient and people-centered grouping of comprehensive growth, he said.
The ASEAN Secretary-General spoke highly of Vietnam’s active contributions to ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1995, including its role in the formulation of the bloc’s major documents such as the ASEAN Charter 2007, the Hanoi Declaration on ASEAN Vision 2020, the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, blueprints for the bloc’s pillars and other important agreements.
He pledged to coordinate with Vietnam in the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and the third-stage working plan for the ASEAN Integration Initiative.
