Nation places importance on sea-based economy sustainably
VOV.VN - Rear Admiral Tran Thanh Nghiem, Commander of the Vietnam People’s Navy, has underscored the necessity of developing the sea-based economy in a sustainable manner, noting that it is both the right and responsibility of each country, region, and the world.
Upon addressing the 15th ASEAN Navy Chiefs’ Meeting held via videoconference on August 11, Admiral Nghiem shared his views on the topic “Blue economy: We care, we prepare, we prosper”. He stated that amid the world and the region facing unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitics in shifting, occurring at a time of economic recessions, natural disasters, and climate change.
Moving forward, the interest in the development of the blue economy will therefore be one of the keys to overcome difficulties, developing together, and meeting goals for a sustainable and inclusive ASEAN community which leaves no one behind.
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with strategic competition among major countries, many factors may directly affect the peace, stability, and development of the local marine economy. Indeed, traditional and non-traditional security threats such as piracy, terrorism, transnational crime, cyber security, illegal immigration, sovereignty disputes, illegal fishing, climate change, and pollution of the marine environment may hurt the region in general.
These issues therefore require the various navies of ASEAN members to reinforce their solidarity and unity, whilst continuing to promote co-operation in maritime security, along with contributing to sustainable marine economic development, he added.
As a means of achieving this goal, the Vietnamese navy chief has put forward the suggestion that the navies of ASEAN member states actively coordinate in and contribute to maintaining a peaceful, secure, stable, and law-based marine environment. This can contribute to creating favourable conditions for countries throughout the region and the wider international community to pool their resources regarding pandemic prevention control and boost economic development. Indeed, it can also help to capitalise on the various opportunities brought about by Industry 4.0.
With regard to the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he proposed the navies of ASEAN share information and replicate good practices and experiences to contribute to the efforts to fight the pandemic across the whole region.
During the course of the meeting, participants heard a report updating the regional maritime security situation presented by a representative of the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) of the Singapore Navy. This was along with the results of the Working Group of the ASEAN Navy Training Experience Exchange Program (ANTEEP) presented by a representative of the Vietnam People’s Navy and discussions of co-operation activities of the ASEAN navies in the near future.