ASEAN backs Viet Nam bid for rights council

NEW YORK (VNS)— ASEAN members have pledged to support each other's bids for seats at the United Nations, including Viet Nam's candidacy for the 2014-16 UN Human Rights Council tenure.

The bloc's foreign ministers comfirmed the arrangement at the recent Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (IAMM), which took place on September 27 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.

The ministers agreed to increase coordination on stance and raising the role of the grouping at the UN and working for a UN General Assembly Resolution on enhanced cooperation between ASEAN and the UN.

The regional ministers adopted a list of major outcomes of the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM-45) and reaffirmed their resolve to effectively implement the results, including the six-principle statement on the East Sea and pushing for official ASEAN-China negotiations on a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). — VNS