Da Nang hosts ASEAN Joint Consultative Meeting

The ASEAN Joint Consultative Meeting (JCM) was held in the central city of Da Nang on March 6 under the chair of Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of Vietnam’s ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM ASEAN)

Dung, who is also head of Vietnam’s ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM ASEAN), informed delegates about the working programme of the upcoming 36th ASEAN Summit, including ASEAN leaders’ special meeting on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the improvement of the quality of dialogues among leaders of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

He also elaborated the roadmap to implement Vietnam’s initiatives as well as their expected outcomes in 2020.

The Deputy Minister stressed the significance of enhancing coordination among pillars of the ASEAN Community, and the overall approach in implementing ASEAN’s commitments and cooperation plans to build the ASEAN Community.

The delegates expressed their support for initiatives proposed by Vietnam in 2020, including the mid-term review of the realisation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, the kick-off of discussions on the post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision, the review of the implementation of the ASEAN Charter, the organisation of an expanded Mekong dialogue and activities regarding women’s empowerment.

The meeting looked into measures to foster inter-sectoral cooperation within ASEAN in such spheres as fighting COVID-19, optimising opportunities generated by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, promoting reciprocity between the ASEAN Vision 2025 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

The delegates reached consensus on the proposed working programme, agenda and documents of the 36th ASEAN Summit, and pledged to closely join hands with Vietnam to successfully organize the summit./.

VNA