ASEAN Summit opens in Brunei

ASEAN leaders convened their 23rd summit in Brunei on October 9 to accelerate the building of a united community by 2015, solve pending issues, and set orientations for the grouping beyond 2015.

In his opening speech, Brunei Sultan Hassani Bolkiah called on the leaders to remove obstacles barring community building efforts, strengthen connectivity, and increase cooperation between ASEAN and its partners, aiming to raise the grouping’s GDP to US$4.4 trillion and reduce the poverty rate to 9.5% by 2015.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung delivered a keynote speech, highlighting ASEAN’s major tasks to build a united, strong and resilient community that plays a central role in maintaining peace, security and prosperous development in the region.

He echoed the Sultan’s view, saying ASEAN should exert a greater effort to successfully build a community by 2015 and work out development orientations for the grouping after 2015.

ASEAN leaders acknowledged the achievements made in carrying out master plans on building the ASEAN community based on the three key pillars: politics-security, economics, and socio-culture in 2013, of which approximately 80% of the ASEAN Economic Community’s workload had been completed.

They said ASEAN should mobilise more resources and increase coordination at national and regional levels to fulfil the target, while fostering ASEAN’s connectivity and linkages so as to expand cooperation in East Asia.

They stressed ASEAN’s central role in forming a regional architecture to ensure an environment of peace, security and development in the region.

Accordingly, ASEAN needs to strengthen solidarity to address key regional issues, enhance dialogue and confidence building measures, share standards of conduct, and promote tools and mechanisms for political and security cooperation in the region, such as the Treaty of Amity Cooperation (TAC), the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ), the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), and the East Asia Summit (EAS).

They said ASEAN should also play a central role in expanding connectivity and linkages in the entire East Asia through initiatives including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), ASEAN+3 Connectivity, and EAS Connectivity.

In addition ASEAN should boost cooperation with its partners and intensify efforts to respond to non-traditional challenges such as disaster management, maritime security, climate change, and food and energy security.

The leaders also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common concern, notably those in the East Sea, Middle East, Syria, and the Korean peninsula.

Regarding the East Sea issue, they stressed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security and maritime safety in the sea, as well as strict implementation of ASEAN’s Six-Point Principles on the East Sea, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the ASEAN-China declaration marking 10 years of the DOC.

They underlined the need to settle disputes through peaceful means and international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They welcomed the first ASEAN-China consultation on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea as a key step towards reaching a complete document on the issue.

They also agreed to accelerate the implementation of initiatives on the establishment of hotlines, search and rescue, and humanitarian aid to people and boats in distress at sea.

To set orientations for the grouping beyond 2015, the leaders said ASEAN needs to deepen community building efforts based on the three key pillars and fully enhance its pivotal role in strengthening linkages, peace and development in the region.

They adopted a post-2015 Vision for ASEAN and assigned the ASEAN Coordinating Council to work out key contents of the Vision to be submitted to the following ASEAN Summit in 2014.

PM Dung arrives in Brunei for ASEAN Summit

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in capital Bandar Seri Begawan on October 8 to attend the 23rd ASEAN Summit and related meetings.

Brunei officials welcomed PM Dung at the capital's airport for the ASEAN Summit.

He will join other ASEAN leaders at the opening ceremony of the summit on October 9 to discuss measures to accelerate ASEAN community building efforts, and the ASEAN development roadmap beyond 2015.

They will also examine measures to promote solidarity and ASEAN’s central role in the evolving regional architecture, strengthen regional connectivity, and boost cooperation between ASEAN and its partners.

They will exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, including those relating to peace, stability and maritime security in the East Sea.

In the afternoon, ASEAN leaders will participate in ASEAN+ meetings with Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, the US and other partners.

Source: VOV