PM Nguyen Tan Dung has left Hanoi for the G-20 Summit in Toronto with a double mission: representing ASEAN and raising Vietnam’s profile as a constructive member of the world community.

VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has left Hanoi for the G-20 Summit in Toronto with a double mission: representing ASEAN and raising Vietnam’s profile as a constructive member of the world community.

Vietnam is chairing the ASEAN group this year, 2010, and as such the Prime Minister is going to Toronto with the mandate of the April ASEAN Summit to share constructive opinions, experience and viewpoints of ASEAN.

Joining the PM on the ‘ASEAN team’ at the G-20 conclave will be President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan. Their joint objective will be to demonstrate that ASEAN is a prestigious and capable organization that can contribute to dealing with global economic and development issues and the building of G20 institutions and of global governance mechanisms suitable to newly emerging and developing economies.

During the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi in April, Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister Leonard Edwards discussed the pending meeting in Toronto. Edwards and Vietnamese officials exchanged ideas to ensure that ASEAN would be ready to make a practical contribution to the G-20 Summit as a responsible partner in the international community.

The G-20 meeting groups the G-7 (USA, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada and Italy), the BRIC members (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and a number of other large-scale emerging economies (Australia, Argentina, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Turkey), and the European Union. These nations and groups include two-thirds of the world population, create 90 percent of global GDP and command 80 percent of global trade revenues.

For Vietnam, the meeting is an entirely new stage. The Prime Minister is expected to express ASEAN’s commitment to promoting sustainable growth, free trade and investment, and the Doha negotiating round on trade expansion. He will protest the use of protectionist methods that are contrary to WTO commitments.

Observers hope that PM Dung will emphasize steps that meet the practical needs of Vietnam specifically and ASEAN generally. Doubtless he will urge the G-20 to continue providing ODA to developing countries and to add sustainable development to the G-20 agenda.

Vietnam’s first appearance at the G-20 Summit shows its growing integration into the world community. The summit will be an opportunity for the PM to express a distinctive, Vietnamese-style message on themes and objectives the nation shares with its ASEAN fellows.

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