VN celebrates ASEM Day

In March 1996, 26 leaders of ASEM member countries founded the ASEM forum as a bridge to bring the two continents closer together. Throughout more than two decades, ASEM has developed beyond initial expectations, to become a platform connecting Asian and European nations, civilisations, people, and businesses, contributing to promoting the trend of cooperation and multi-layered connectivity for peace and development.

Entering its third decade, in the context of rapid and complicated developments at a regional and global level, ASEM is currently in a critical moment of transition. It is necessary to facilitate partnerships in a stronger and more robust fashion between Asia and Europe, in order to effectively tackle the existing challenges, whilst maintaining ASEM’s core values and principles of equal partnership, mutual respect, and mutual benefit.

Viet Nam always attaches importance and gives top priority to contributing to the joint efforts to elevate ASEM cooperation and promote Asia-Europe connectivity via the ASEAN Community, partnerships, and current cooperative mechanisms, both bilaterally and multilaterally.

With the implementation of extensive international integration and proactive multilateral diplomacy, Vietnam pledges to continue working with member countries to build a vision for a responsible and adaptable ASEM in the current context.

Viet Nam has initiated 23 programs and is a co-founder of 27 other initiatives in culture, healthcare, education, food security, climate change, science and technology, tourism, economics, green growth, and social security. 

It has pioneered regular cooperation in natural disaster preparedness and the ASEM dialogue in sustainable development of water resource management and upgrading the Mekong Sub-region cooperation to the regional level.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an intergovernmental process, launched in 1996 in Bangkok, to amplify the dialogue between Asia and Europe. The ASEM partners include the EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, the European Commission, the ASEAN Secretariat (Nations Association of South East Asian Nations) and 20 Asian countries: the 10 ASEAN members (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam), alongside Australia, Bangladesh, PR China, R. Korea, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia.

                                                                                                                                By Vien Nhu