Cambodia agrees on religious links

Photo: Vietnam+

Increased
religious co-operation would contribute to enhancing traditional friendship and
comprehensive co-operation between Viet Nam and Cambodia, Deputy Prime Minister
Pham Gia Khiem told visiting Cambodian Minister of Cults and Religious Affairs
Min Khin.

Speaking
with Minister Min Khin at a meeting in the capital city yesterday, Khiem, who is
also the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he hoped the two sides would further
step up their co-operation in the near future.

“Viet
Nam will try its utmost to preserve and look after Viet Nam-Cambodia relations,”
Khiem said.

He also
lauded the results of talks between the Government’s Committee for Religious
Affairs and the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religious Affairs.

Minister
Min Khin said he believed good relations between Viet Nam and Cambodia would
continue to develop in the interests of the two peoples.

Vietnam calls for stronger ASEAN-Middle East ties

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and the Middle East need to increase cooperation in cookings and energy, said
Deputy Foreign Minister Doan Xuan Hung at the third Asia-Middle East Dialogue
Ministerial Meeting (AMED III) in Bangkok on December 15-16.

Asia and ASEAN member countries in
particular are abundant agricultural resources and capable of providing stable
volumes of foods for the world in the future.

Encompassing countries that boast
long-standing agriculture and livestock breeding industries, as well as sound
experience in food production, ASEAN is striving to ensure energy security
within the bloc and supply foods to the rest of the world.

With its investment incentives and
wish to build an ASEAN Community for peace and development, ASEAN is growing
stronger and is becoming an attractive destination for foreign investors, Mr.
Hung said.

The deputy minister said Vietnam is
the second largest exporter of rice in the region, accounting for one-fifth of
the world’s total rice export. Vietnam is also willing to share experience in
agricultural development by sending experts to help Asian, African and Latin
American countries.

Meanwhile, he noted, the Middle
East is the centre of traditional world energy, with large reserves of oil and
gas. In addition to its oil reserves – equivalent to 56 percent of the world’s
total reserves – finance is also a remarkable strength of the region.

According to the deputy minister,
relations between ASEAN and the Middle East are growing fruitfully. Vietnam and
other ASEAN member nations appreciate mechanism and plans of ASEAN-GCC (Gulf
Cooperation Council) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and are ready to step up
bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture, energy and labour.

Vietnam hands over CPR chairmanship to Indonesia

On December 15, Ambassador Vu Dang Dung, Vietnam’s
Permanent Representative to ASEAN handed over the Chairmanship of ASEAN’s
Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to Indonesian Ambassador, I Gede
Ngurah Swajaya at the CPR’s final session in 2010.

Summarizing the CPR’s activities
over the past year, PM Dung highlighted the committee’s joint efforts to
increase the cooperation efficiency within ASEAN in various fields and fulfill
major tasks in accelerating the implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the
plans to form an ASEAN community.

The committee helped ASEAN boost its
cooperation with partners to approve dialogue mechanisms in Jakarta, while
increasing the ASEAN Secretariat’s capacity and successfully organising ASEAN’s
major activities in Vietnam.

These outcomes were recognized by
ASEAN countries as the CPR’s positive contribution to effective implementation
of ASEAN’s key tasks for 2010. It is essential for the committee to continue to
increase operational efficiency to push forward the establishment of an ASEAN
community in the following years, emphasised PM Dung.

ASEAN Secretary-General, Surin
Pitsuwan praised Vietnam for its good performance as the ASEAN Chair in 2010,
while Indonesian Ambassador Ngurah- the next CPR Chair and permanent
representatives from ASEAN nations applauded Vietnam’s great contributions to
efficient operation of the CPR and well as shared overall success of ASEAN over
the past year.

The same day, the Vietnamese
Permanent Representative Mission to ASEAN in collaboration with the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism and the ASEAN Secretariat launched a programme to
promote tourism and opened artistic performance which is part of ASEAN cultural
exchanges.

The event was attended by ASEAN
permanent representatives, ambassadors from partner countries, representatives
from Indonesia’s government agencies, diplomatic corps in Jakarta and reporters.

In his address, Mr Surin Pitsuwan
said he was happy to see the performance which coincided with the time when
Vietnam completed its ASEAN Chairmanship in 2010- the year Vietnam did well in
all fields, including culture.

Thailand military delegation visits Vietnam

A high-ranking delegation of the Royal Thai Army led
by General Prayut Chanocha ended their two-day working visit to Vietnam on
December 16.

During its stay in Vietnam, the Thai
delegation met with a senior delegation of the Vietnam People’s Army, headed by
deputy chief of the General Staff, Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Trung Thu, during which
the two sides briefed each other about socio-economic development, national
defence and security situations as well as the building of army forces.
They proposed measures to boost military relations between the two countries in
the future, including joint sea-rescue drills, military officer training and the
exchange of military delegations at low levels in a move to increase mutual
understanding and trust.
General Prayut Chanocha, who is also commander of Thai land forces, praised
Vietnam for successfully hosting ASEAN summits as the bloc’s Chair, including a
number of national defence and security meetings.

He expressed his wish that
friendship between the two countries’ people and military forces would be
strengthened and developed for the sake of regional peace and stability.

The Thai delegation paid a courtesy
visit to Vietnamese Defence Minister, General Phung Quang Thanh, Army Corp 3
under Military Zone 1 and made a tour of Hanoi.

VNN/VOV/VNS