Minister of Public Security Sen. Lieut. Gen. Lương Tam Quang (left) and Secretary-General of ASEAN Kao Kim Hourn. — VNA/VNS Photo

VIENTIANE — Minister of Public Security Sen. Lieut. Gen. Lương Tam Quang on August 28 had a meeting with Secretary-General of ASEAN Kao Kim Hourn in Vientiane, Laos, on August 28 on the sidelines of the 18th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC-18).

At the meeting, Minister Quang thanked the ASEAN chief and ASEAN Secretariat for their support for the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security in effectively implementing cooperation activities within the framework of the ASEAN multilateral mechanism on preventing and combating transnational crimes.

He affirmed that Việt Nam always considers ASEAN one of the important pillars in the country's foreign policy. In nearly 30 years of participating in ASEAN, Việt Nam has successully served as the chair of ASEAN for three times, making many contributions to building an ASEAN Community of solidarity, peace, stability, safety, prosperity and self-resiliance, thereby contributing to the effective implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 on all the three pillars, as well as developing a strategy carrying out the ASEAN Community Vision 2045.

Quang emphasised that, for the Political-Security Community, the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security is always committed to actively and responsibly joining ASEAN countries' efforts in addressing global issues, contributing to the international environment of peace and stability, including the AMMTC cooperation mechanism, the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Drug Matters (AMMD) related to the prevention and combat of transnational crimes.

He proposed that in the coming time, the ASEAN chief and ASEAN Secretariat will continue to support Vietnam to chair or co-chair the prevention of one of the ten transnational crimes that ASEAN prioritises to combat and Vietnam is strong in.

Việt Nam wishes its initiatives and cooperation projects within the framework of the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC) cooperation mechanism will receive continued support from Kao Kim Hourn and the ASEAN Secretariat, he said.

Quang went on they will create conditions for officers from the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security to apply for positions at functional units of the ASEAN Secretariat to improve their capacity to work in an international environment, promptly meeting the requirements of promoting comprehensive and extensive international integration.

As the coordinator of ASEAN-UK and ASEAN-New Zealand relations for the 2024-27 period, Việt Nam wishes to make more contributions to enhancing cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crimes between ASEAN and the two partners, he said, proposing the ASEAN chief and ASEAN Secretariat actively support the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, along with ASEAN countries, to raise specific cooperation proposals and initiatives to make the most of cooperation mechanisms in the region.

For his part, Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn highly appreciated Việt Nam's contributions to the ASEAN community, as well as its coordination in ASEAN.

He highly valued the collaboration of the Vietnamese public security ministry in training and improving the capacity and skills of law enforcement officers in ASEAN.

He said he welcomes Vietnamese officials to join the ASEAN Secretariat.

He applauded Việt Nam for successfully coordinating the ASEAN-the Republic of Korea ties for the 2021-24 period, suggesting that Việt Nam continue to strengthen cooperation and coordination between ASEAN and New Zealand, and ASEAN and the UK in the 2023-27 period.

The ASEAN Secretariat always stands ready to coordinate with the ministry to implement activities and projects to raise the capacity of law enforcement officers of ASEAN countries, he affirmed. — VNS