ASEAN urges peaceful resolution to Thai turmoil
Viet Nam’s Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, as Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), issued “ASEAN Chairman’s statement on the situation in Thailand” yesterday.
He said: “ASEAN Member States, while expressing their concern over the violent developments in Thailand, emphasise their support and solidarity with the people and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand in finding a peaceful resolution to the ongoing challenge in the country through dialogue and in full respect of democratic principles and rules of law.
“ASEAN Member States support the early restoration of law and order, national reconciliation and the return to normalcy in Thailand, in accordance with those aforementioned principles and in line with the interest of the people of Thailand as well as the vision of the ASEAN Community. They underscore that peace, stability and development in Thailand is crucial to the advancement of the goal of the ASEAN Community by 2015.
“ASEAN Member States have confidence in the resilience of the Thai nation to overcome its present difficulties. ASEAN stands ready to extend all possible assistance based on the principles outlined in the ASEAN Charter.”
President Triet meets Vietnamese community in Finland
On the night of May 21 (Hanoi time), State President Nguyen Minh Triet met with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Finland.
At the meeting, Chairwoman of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Finland, Nga Nguyen said that nearly 5,000 overseas Vietnamese are living in Finland, including more than 500 pupils and students studying there.
The Finnish Government appreciates the overseas Vietnamese community for their hardworking spirit and adherence to the law. Many Vietnamese young people have succeed in life and business by holding important positions in major Finnish firms or running Vietnamese restaurants.
Mr Triet praised the overseas Vietnamese for their efforts to unite and integrate into the community in their country of residence.
“I hope that Vietnamese nationals will always uphold their national traditions to make positive contributions to Finland and to their homeland as well. The Vietnamese Embassy should help overseas Vietnamese to preserve their cultural identity by keeping their mother tongue.”, Mr Triet emphasised.
The State leader also informed the overseas Vietnamese community of the outcome of his visit, in which Finland pledged to continue to create the best possible conditions for overseas Vietnamese to live and do business.
At the meeting with staff from the Vietnamese Embassy in Finland, Mr Triet called on the embassy to perform its role as a centre to enhance solidarity among overseas Vietnamese and create favourable conditions for them to make contributions to their homeland.
Earlier, Mr Triet visited a forest farm to learn more about forestry economic development and wood harvesting. Forestry is the second biggest industrial sector in Finland. For Finnish people, afforestation is not only about job creation but also part of their culture and a hobby for many Finnish people to speed up socio-economic development and protect the environment.
Party delegation visits France
Senior officials of the communist Parties of Viet Nam and France yesterday expressed their wish to increase exchanges of theoretical studies and practical knowledge on issues of common concern.
During their talks in Paris, Politburo member and Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam’s Central Committee (CPVCC) To Huy Rua and Jean Charles Negre, Chief of the Trade-Finance Division of the Communist Party of France (PCF), said such exchanges would further tighten solidarity, friendship and co-operation between the two Parties.
Rua congratulated the PCF for its victory in the European Parliament election in June last year and the recent regional council elections.
A PCF representative said it wishes to gather more followers among the masses and improve its status in social movements and among authorities at all levels. Therefore, he added, an education campaign and especially the training of young party members would receive special attention.
Rua said the two Parties should take turns to organise dialogues and exchanges of current issues, including models for sustainable development that Viet Nam uses with the communist Parties of China, Japan and Russia.
Soldiers’ remains repatriated
The remains of seven volunteer soldiers who gave their lives in Laos during wartime were yesterday repatriated and reinterred in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien.
Only one set of remains has been identified and was returned to his hometown in Bac Giang Province by his family.
The search for the remains was a co-operative effort by teams from Viet Nam and Laos.
Since 1995, Dien Bien Province has accepted and buried 1,414 sets of remains of Vietnamese soldiers who died in Laos.
This was the 23rd handover of remains since 1995.
Officials prepare for ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting
The Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOM) of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN+3 and an informal consultation among East Asian Summit (EAS) senior officials took place in the central province of Quang Nam from May 19-20.
The meetings aimed to prepare for the 43rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related meetings to be held in Ha Noi from July 19-23.
They also reviewed the effectiveness of co-operation of previous forums as well as putting forth development orientations and activities for the coming period.
The ASEAN+3 SOM focused on assessing co-operation between ASEAN and China, Japan and the South Korea in various fields.
Officials also discussed the implementation of decisions made during the 12th ASEAN+3 Summit in October 2009 and preparations for the ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the 13th ASEAN+3 Summit in Ha Noi in July and October this year, respectively.
At the informal consultation among EAS senior officials, delegates discussed steps to further the results of the 4th EAS Summit and preparations for the EAS Foreign Ministers’ informal consultation in July and the 5th EAS Summit in October this year in Ha Noi.
Participants also exchanged views on the EAS’s development, especially its co-operation in five priority areas as well as several issues relating to the EAS mechanism, including the expansion of the forum.
The ARF SOM reviewed the ARF’s activities during the 2009-10 period, especially in the fields of trust building, preventive diplomacy, disaster mitigation, marine security, and terrorism and trans-national crime prevention.
Regarding the ARF’s future, delegates defined that the ARF’s future priority was to boost trust building measures while gradually adopting preventive diplomacy, finalising a draft Ha Noi Plan of Action, implementing the Statement on a vision for ARF and consider a list of activities to be submitted to the 17th ARF Ministerial Meeting.
They also discussed various regional and international issues of common concern, particularly the issue of non-traditional security, the situation on the Korean Peninsular, in Myanmar and Thailand as well as the East Sea issue.
Negotiations continue with EU over partnership agreement
Viet Nam and the European Union (EU) began the seventh round of negotiations for the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) in Brussels on Wednesday.
The Vietnamese delegation to the negotiation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, with James Moran, director for Asia in the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations, representing the EU.
At the opening ceremony, Son affirmed that the past six rounds of negotiations saw evident progress and helped reduce differences between the two sides in many fields.
He expressed his wish that in the spirit of friendship and respect for mutual interests, the two sides would try their best to reach the PCA as soon as possible, which would provide a comprehensive and ambitious framework for bilateral ties.
For his part, the EU head delegate expressed his pleasure at the development in the Viet Nam-EU relations and said that the EU would closely co-operate with Viet Nam to speed up negotiations in order to sign the PCA at the up-coming Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). The seventh round of negotiations will close today.
VNN
