ASEAN to promote COVID-19 vaccine production, technology transfer
VOV.VN - ASEAN should strive to increase the exchange of technology and share relevant experiences with its partners in terms of research, development, production, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, regional Foreign Ministers have agreed.
The ministers, while in attendance at their 54th meeting (AMM) virtually hosted by Brunei on August 2, expressed their grave concerns about the current COVID-19 outbreak throughout the region and stressed the need to ramp up the vaccination strategy, considering it to be key to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Welcoming contributions to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund by ASEAN and its partners, the ministers called for the urgent implementation of the Action Plan for ASEAN Vaccine Security and Self-Reliance, the Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies for Public Health Emergencies, and the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework.
The ministers pledged to meet cooperation results achieved last year, including reviewing the implementation of the ASEAN Charter, building the post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision, along with promoting sub-regional cooperation. Regional countries therefore welcomed Vietnam’s initiative to host a sub-regional cooperation forum later this year.
With regard to external relations, the ministers discussed measures to strengthen and deepen relations between ASEAN and its partners, upholding the bloc’s centrality and affirming the value of ASEAN-led mechanisms in promoting dialogue, cooperation, active participation, and contributions by partners to peace, security, and development throughout the region.
They agreed to establish a dialogue partnership with the UK and a sectoral dialogue partnership with Brazil. They welcomed and approved the proposal to join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) by the Netherlands, Greece, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Denmark.
The ministers also spent plenty of time exchanging views on a variety of regional and international issues of common concern, including those in the South China Sea (known locally as the East Sea), the Korean Peninsula, and the Middle East.
Amid ongoing complicated developments in the South China Sea, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, security, stability, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters.
They reaffirmed their consistent stance on resolving disputes through peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), while calling on concerned parties to exercise self-restraint, not to militarise, and not to threaten the use of force in the region.
The meeting reiterated the importance of full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and welcomed the resumption of negotiations on a Code of Conduct (COC) in the waters between ASEAN and China. It emphasised the need to maintain a favourable environment for COC negotiations and to continue efforts towards achieving an effective and substantive COC in accordance with international law, including the UNCLOS 1982.
The meeting gave ministers the chance to agree to comprehensively and promptly implement the five-point Consensus aimed at stabilising the situation in Myanmar, an agreement first reached at the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting in Jakarta in April. They reaffirmed ASEAN’s desire to support Myanmar, a member of the ASEAN family, in overcoming difficulties and finding solutions to current complications in the interest of its citizens.
Finally, the ministers touched upon the appointment of a Special ASEAN Envoy to Myanmar and agreed to urgently deploy humanitarian assistance to the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre).
Vietnam supports Brunei's priorities, initiatives for 2021
Addressing the meeting, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son affirmed that Vietnam supports Brunei’s efforts in promoting the ASEAN Community building process, as well as realizing priorities and initiatives in 2021 under the theme “We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper.”
He shared COVID-19 difficulties faced by regional grouping and suggested that ASEAN effectively take advantage of cooperation opportunities with its partners, especially in procurement and technology transfer for vaccine production.
He also noted that sub-regional development is an integral part of the ASEAN Community building process in an attempt to narrow the development gap and recover from the pandemic.
Vietnam will continue to actively and responsibly participate in building the post-2025 ASEAN Community Vision, Son said, while thanking other countries for supporting its hosting of a sub-regional cooperation forum later this year.
The 54th AMM and related meetings such as the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs), the 22nd ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM), the 11th East Asia Summit (EAS) FMM, and the 28th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) are scheduled to take place from August 2-6.
