Vietnam becomes official member of AALCO

Vietnam was warmly welcomed as a latest official member of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) at its 56th Annual Session on May 2 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh thanked the AALCO Secretariat and member nations for their support for Vietnam’s admission.

He stressed that Vietnam appreciates the organisation’s efforts to make it easy for the member states to discuss international legal issues related to the interests of Asian and African countries, thus giving recommendations to the countries as well as conveying the AALCO’s viewpoints to the UN and other international organisations.

Vietnam has made all-out efforts to contribute to strengthening Asia-Africa cooperation since 1955 when it took part in the first Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung city, Indonesia (Bandung Conference), Thanh said.

He reaffirmed as an official member of the AALCO, Vietnam commits to enhancing links with other member countries and the Secretariat of the organisation to deploy intra-group cooperation activities in line with its Statutes and Statutory Rules.

Vietnam also wants to learn from other AALCO member countries’ experience in international legal issues, he added.

At the conference, participants focused their discussion on how to fight violent extremism and terrorism, regulations and treatment of refugees, atmosphere protection, international criminal justice exemption for State officials, and international law on cyberspace, which are also under discussion at the UN, especially the International Law Commission (ILC) and the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee.

Vietnam officially became the 47th member of the AALCO on February 24, 2017, marking a new development step in the country’s international integration, especially in legal sector.

AALCO, originally known as the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC), was constituted on 15 November 1956. It is considered to be a tangible outcome of the historic Bandung Conference held in Indonesia in April 1955.

As the only international organisation in the world promoting solidarity among Asian and African countries in the field of international law, AALCO has involved the codification and development of international law. It gave opinion to the completion of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

The organisation now groups 47 member nations in both Asia and Africa.

VNA