Vietnam proposes five major cooperation areas for Asia Cooperation Dialogue

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Hang attended the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit in Doha, Qatar, on October 2-3, during which she proposed five focal points for the ACD to focus cooperation on, including upholding multilateralism, together with regional mechanisms and forums, including ASEAN, to contribute to maintaining peace, stability and promoting Asia's leading role.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Hang (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnamese representative suggested that the ACD should give higher priority to enhancing cooperation to promote new growth drivers, supporting countries in green transition, digital transformation, technological transformation, and developing new technologies and energy sources.

At the same time, it needs to ensure sustainable regional supply chains by promoting the signing and implementation of free trade agreements, limiting trade barriers, and ensuring self-reliant Asian supply chains, especially food and energy supply chains, she said.

Highlighting heavy losses caused by recent Typhoon Yagi to Vietnam and some regional countries, Hang held that ACD cooperation needs to transform to adapt to future issues and contribute to effectively addressing global challenges, with focus on ensuring food security, energy security and water security, while enhancing capacity to prevent and adapt to climate change.

It is necessary to promote connections and exchanges between people of different countries through cultural and sports exchange programmes and tourism days, Hang said. She clarified that culture and sports need to become new pillars in the ACD cooperation framework, which must be concretised through sports exchange activities, training and youth sports development. Countries need to integrate culture and sports into their overall national development strategies and allocate appropriate resources to develop these two important areas, she stated.

Hang also shared Vietnam’s external policies and major development orientations, affirming that Vietnam is ready to actively and responsibly contribute to the activities of global, inter-regional and regional cooperation organisations and mechanisms for peace, cooperation and development.

Themed sports diplomacy, the third ACD Summit emphasised the important role of sports in promoting dialogue, cooperation, contributing to peace, stability and sustainable development of the continent. The summit released a joint statement affirming the commitment of member countries to continue promoting dialogue and cooperation, effectively implementing the ACD Action Plan for the 2021 - 2030 period and the ACD Vision 2030 with six key pillars of water security, energy security, food security, multi-dimensional connectivity, science and technology and innovation, education and training and human resource development, culture and tourism, sustainable and inclusive development.

On this occasion, Deputy FM Hang had meetings with Kyrgyzstani Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov, Omani Minister of Economy Said bin Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Saqri, the Republic of Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Public Affairs Ambassador Hong Seok-in, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad bin Sultan Al Muraikhi, as well as Chief Executive Officer at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Mansoor Bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud and leaders of several large-scale corporations in Qatar in the fields of real estate and agriculture.

Leaders of governments, ministries, sectors and businesses of the countries highly valued Vietnam's development potential and strong efforts in transforming the growth model and promoting innovation, affirming their desire to bolster cooperation with Vietnam in various fields, especially investment, trade, agriculture and energy.

At the meeting with Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad bin Sultan Al Muraikhi and Qatari partners, Hang invited representatives from ministries, agencies and businesses of Qatar to the first international Halal conference that Vietnam will host on October 22 in Hanoi. She expressed her hope that the QIA and Qatari corporations will increase research and investment in Vietnam, creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to attend important international conferences and exhibitions in Qatar such as Web Summit 2025, AgriteQ Agricultural Exhibition, and ExpoDoha.

At their meeting, Hang and Kyrgyzstani Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov agreed to continue promoting delegation exchanges at all levels to continuously consolidate the good traditional relations between the two countries in an increasingly effective and substantive manner, and to strengthen coordination at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Receiving Omani Minister of Economy Said bin Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Saqri, Hang affirmed that Vietnam wishes to further strengthen cooperation with Oman, especially through the exchange of delegations at all levels and promotion of cooperation in the fields of economics, trade, investment and culture, and asked Oman to support Vietnam in developing the Halal industry. The Omani official underlined that his country attaches importance to relations with Vietnam, saying that the two countries share many similarities in implementing foreign policies. He agreed to expand the scale of investment in Vietnam by the Vietnam - Oman Investment fund.

Meeting the Republic of Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Public Affairs Ambassador Hong Seok-in, Hang said Vietnam hopes that the RoK will share its experience with and support Vietnam in successfully organising the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit in 2025. She suggested that the two sides promote cooperation in trade, labour, investment in high-tech and innovation industries, and that the RoK grant more scholarships for Vietnamese students to study in the RoK./.

VNA