Vietnamese PM attends EU-ASEAN commemorative summit in Brussels
VOV.VN - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam on December 14 attended a summit in Brussels, Belgium, to mark 45 years of the dialogue partnership between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
This is the first time that ASEAN and the EU have jointly organized the commemorative summit in Belgium, with the participation of senior leaders of ASEAN and EU member states, since they both established their dialogue partnership in 1977 and strategic partnership in 2020.
After 45 years, the ASEAN-EU relations have developed dynamically, covering various fields, from politics-security and economy-trade to culture, social affairs and development cooperation.
The two sides are currently coordinating to implement an action plan to realize their strategic partnership for 2023-2027.
The EU maintains ASEAN holds a central position in the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific announced in 2021, and it looks forward to promoting in-depth cooperation with ASEAN.
The EU is one of ASEAN’s leading trade and development cooperation partners. According to ASEAN data, the EU was ASEAN’s third largest trading partner last year after China and the US, with the two-way trade turnover reaching US$268.9 billion, up 18.6% year on year. It was also ASEAN’s second largest foreign investor after the US, with a total investment capital of US$26.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission, reported ASEAN was the EU’s third largest non-European trading partner in 2021 after China and the US.
During the summit in Brussels, leaders of the two sides are expected to review the ASEAN – EU partnership over the past 45 years and set out important orientations for their development in the future. At the same time they will spend time discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern.
They are set to adopt a joint statement of the summit.