Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has called on ASEAN and Australia to create three breakthroughs, including doubling two-way trade in a decade, make three enhancements, and carry out three joint actions so as to further boost the efficiency of the bilateral relations.

PM Chinh delivered his recommendations while addressing the plenary session of the 2024 ASEAN-Australian Special Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday.

While highly appreciating the importance of the summit, he highlighted the long-standing cooperation relationship between Australia and ASEAN as well as Australia’s support during the last five decades for the bloc, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.  

The Vietnamese leader suggested that the two sides make three breakthroughs, including one in economic, trade, and investment cooperation, with the aim of doubling their two-way trade in the next 10 years.

In 2022, the ASEAN-Australia trade topped US$101 billion, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier, while Australia’s foreign direct investment in the grouping reaching over $2 billion, a 6.5-fold surge from 2021, almost attaining pre-COVID-19 levels, according to official figures.

PM Chinh put forward a second breakthrough in labor cooperation and the development of high-quality human resources.

The final breakthrough should focus on science, technology, and innovation cooperation, emphasizing the development of the digital economy, green transformation, circular economy, and emerging sectors like semiconductor chips and artificial intelligence.

The PM also suggested that both sides conduct negotiations on a bilateral digital economy agreement. 

In addition to these changes, Chinh highlighted the importance of strengthening political trust and cooperation for global peace and security.

This involves fostering a culture of dialogue, building trust, practicing preventive diplomacy, and encouraging responsible contributions from major countries in the region.

He proposed boosting sub-regional cooperation to reduce the development gap, particularly through strategic infrastructure projects.

This aims to foster inclusive and sustainable development, bringing positive socio-economic changes to impoverished, underdeveloped ASEAN sub-regions.

Furthermore, there is a need to strengthen cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, which involves leveraging the strengths of the ASEAN-origin community, comprising over a million people, including 350,000 of Vietnamese origin, in Australia.

Such efforts aim to enhance mutual understanding, empathy, and unity, particularly among the younger generations of both sides.

During the summit's retreat session, PM Chinh suggested three collaborative actions for the bloc and Australia.

The suggestion entails creating a united and resilient region capable of withstanding internal and external challenges, ultimately fostering comprehensive, sustainable, and inclusive growth to ensure that no one is left behind.

The second aim is to encourage countries to follow international laws like the UN Charter and ASEAN principles, like actively participating in creating new codes of conduct, including one for the East Vietnam Sea.

The goal is to make the region a peaceful, stable, cooperative, and developing zone.

The third joint action is to build an inclusive, open regional structure that promotes multilateralism, with ASEAN playing a central role, the Vietnamese leader stated. 

The summit also heard participants express their pleasure at the achievements attained through the cooperation between ASEAN and Australia, especially since both sides entered a strategic partnership in 2014 and upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021.

Leaders from the two sides agreed to effectively implement the newly-upgraded ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

They agreed to boost cooperation in new areas such as innovation, digital economy, green transition, energy transition, and e-commerce in order to make them new growth drivers for the economic relations between Australia and ASEAN.

Participants underscored the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and navigation and aviation safety in the East Vietnam Sea as well as peacefully resolving disputes on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

They called for the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Vietnam Sea and the early construction of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct for the waterway in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS 1982.

ASEAN leaders applauded Australia’s announcement to grant an additional AU$222.5 million ($146.5 million) funding for cooperation with Mekong sub-region countries.

They welcomed Australia setting up an investment fund worth AU$2 billion ($1.32 billion) as well as its other initiatives to beef up trade and investment cooperation with ASEAN countries in the coming time.

At the end of the summit, the leaders of both sides adopted the ‘ASEAN-Australia Leaders’ Vision Statement – Partners for Peace and Prosperity’ and ‘Melbourne Declaration – A Partnership for the Future,’ setting out orientations for development of the bilateral ties in all fields in the years ahead.

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