Canadian expert greatly values Vietnamese role as ASEAN Chair
VOV.VN - Vietnam has successfully taken advantage of its position as ASEAN Chair to become a bridge that is capable of promoting intra-ASEAN connections as well as links between the bloc and its dialogue partners, a Canadian expert has said.
Jonathan Berkshire Miller, director and co-founder of the Ottawa-based Council on International Policy, highly values the country’s role in continuing to harmonise relations with China, while also striving to strengthen the partnership that exists within ASEAN and in the wider Indo-Pacific region.
The nation’s principled and resolute leadership has served to make progress in settling challenging issues relating to the East Sea, he emphasised.
Miller, who is also a senior expert of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, highlighted the country’s initiatives to change the way it organises dialogues and important meetings held throughout the year since taking on the role of Chair of ASEAN. Indeed, this can be considered to be an especially tough time due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is ravaging the world, in addition to escalating regional geopolitical tensions.
Furthermore, Luis Silva, a Canadian expert on government relations, expressed his optimism about future prospects regarding co-operation between ASEAN and Canada.
Amid the context of the unpredictable developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Government is working to reduce its dependence on the Chinese market, whilst taking new measures aimed at expanding economic co-operation with other countries in East Asia, he said.
According to the expert, Canada, along with four ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei, are members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Canada and ASEAN are therefore implementing a working plan in line with the Canada-ASEAN Joint Declaration on Trade and Investment, whilst also considering the possibility of signing a free trade agreement, he said, adding that these moves indicate that both ASEAN and Canada are keen to further their co-operation ties.
The ASEAN-Canada dialogue partnership was first established in 1977. In the framework of the ASEAN-Canada Ministerial Meeting taking place online as part of the 53rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM 53), both sides discussed concrete measures aimed at strengthen co-operation in political, social, and cultural pillars.
Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne affirmed that with Canada having a major Pacific coastline, the North American country attaches great importance to its growing relationship with all ASEAN member nations, with his country and ASEAN able to unite in order to deal with important global issues whilst supporting peace, security, economic growth, and sustainable development for all countries.
At present, ASEAN is Canada's sixth largest trading partner, with two-way trade between the two reaching hit CAD 27.2 billion, equivalent to US$20.6 billion, in 2019.
This comes after Canadian investment and trade activities in Southeast Asia have witnessed a sharp increase in terms of volume across many areas, including oil and gas, mining, high technology, telecommunications, food processing, financial services, and aviation.