EAS focuses on regional peace and development

PM Nguyen Tan Dung, ASEAN leaders, representatives from international organizations, and East Asian partners attended the 7th EAS in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on November 20.

They reviewed recent cooperative activities within the EAS across the priority areas of energy, finance, natural disaster control, education, epidemic prevention, and ASEAN connectivity.

PM Dung described the EAS as a forum for leaders to open dialogues and establish collaborative orientations on strategic issues, politics, security, and development, furthering the region’s interest and based on the EAS’ targets and principles.

Dung said the EAS should broaden cooperation on non-traditional security issues, responding to the region’s emerging challenges such as natural disaster management, anti-terrorism, trans-national crime, and human trafficking.

The EAS needs to use its position of importance in the regional structure to expand the existing mechanism for striving towards the common goals of peace, stability, and development.

The summit should promote united approaches to maritime security and safety in the shared interests of the region and the larger world. Dung stressed the pressing need for regional teamwork in searching for and rescuing people and vessels in distress at sea, combating piracy, boosting maritime connectivity, protecting the oceans’ biodiversity, and the sustainable management of seafood resources.

He also praised the joint East Sea-related efforts made in the name of peace, stability, and maritime security and safety. He asked countries to support ASEAN and China in fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and the joint declaration issued on its 10th anniversary as work continues on a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) between ASEAN and China.

Vietnam backs ASEAN’s stated six-point principles on the East Sea to ensure disputes are settled through peaceful means in accordance with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It legislates respecting the exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of coastal countries to preserve regional peace, maritime security and safety, and prosperity, Dung said

Countries supported ASEAN’s drive for an enhanced role in the EAS, encouraging partners to engage in regional cooperation and coordination between the EAS and the regional frameworks of ASEAN+3, ARF, ADMM+, and AMF.

Leaders welcomed the Myanmar government’s efforts to accelerate the process of national reconciliation and regional integration and supported lifting the economic embargo previously imposed upon the country.

They voiced support for a peaceful, stable and nuclear weapon free Korean peninsula and the early resumption of six-party talks.

Concluding the summit, EAS leaders adopted the EAS Declarations on EAS development initiatives and anti malaria drug resistance, and officially started negotiations for a regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP).