ASEAN needs to maintain solidarity, strengthen coordination as well as play a key role in dealing with regional challenges, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has said.
In his speech at the 45 th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 9, Minh also stated that the group should bring into full play its role and push up the building of a regional architecture in order to make effective contributions to the common goals of peace, stability and cooperation.
Regarding external relations, he stressed that ASEAN should further deepen relations with its partners and encourage them to contribute to regional cooperation.
In the future, the group should uphold its core role in regional processes, Minh added.
Regarding the East Sea, Minister Minh expressed his deep concern over the recent complicated situation in the East Sea, stressing the Vietnamese Government’s stance of opposing China’s approval of the establishment of the so-called “Sansha city” and its invitation for international bidding of the nine oil and gas lots which are located completely within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Those activities seriously violated the sovereign right and the jurisdictional right of the coastal nations over exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in accordance with provisions of the 1982 UNCLOS, and ran counter to the spirit of the Declaration on the Conducts of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), Minh said.
He also stressed the principles of respecting the sovereign right and the jurisdictional right of the coastal nations over exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in line with provisions of the UNCLOS, solving disputes through peaceful measures without the use of force and with respect to the international law, particularly the 1982 UNCLOS and the spirit of the DOC.
ASEAN should demonstrate its leading role, responsibility and constructive spirit in solving matters relating to the common interest of the region, creating favourable environment for the parties concerned to peacefully settle the disputes, he said.
VNA/VNP