Deputy Foreign Minister Đỗ Hùng Việt attended the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting in Vientiane. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Deputy Foreign Minister Đỗ Hùng Việt, who is also head of Việt Nam’s delegation to the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM), has attended a series of the bloc's meetings in Vientiane, Laos on June 6-7.

The events, consisting of the SOM, the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ EXCOM), and the 17th ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group (ACCWG) on Timor-Leste's ASEAN Membership Application, aimed to comprehensively review the preparations for the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings, scheduled to take place in Vientiane from July 24-28.

At the meetings, the Vietnamese deputy minister actively participated in and made significant contributions to the discussions, particularly on implementing the bloc’s priorities for 2024 and orientations for building a strategy to realise the ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2045.

He lauded ASEAN's common approach to deepening relations with partners and promoting the signing of the Protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty by nuclear weapon states (NWS). The official also highlighted the bloc’s role and approach in supporting Myanmar, including humanitarian assistance to its people.

Việt affirmed that ASEAN must maintain its common stance on the East Sea issue as outlined in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Maintaining and Promoting Stability in the Maritime Sphere in Southeast Asia dated December 30, 2023, particularly the principles of upholding international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982); exercising restraint and resolving disputes peacefully; fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Sea, and developing an effective, substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in the waters in accordance with international law, especially UNCLOS. VNS