The session was chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, 2025 ASEAN Chair, and attended by leaders of ASEAN member states, Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn.

Adoption of ASEAN Vision 2045 and agreement on Timor-Leste’s accession

During the session, ASEAN leaders expressed their condolences on the passing of former Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong, acknowledging his important contributions to Vietnam’s renewal, development, and international integration.

The leaders expressed strong support for the summit’s theme of “Inclusive and Sustainable Development,” which they said reflected ASEAN’s urgent need to promote balanced growth, resilience, unity, and a collective response to common challenges such as climate change, energy security, transnational crime, and natural disasters.

ASEAN remains a bright spot in the global economy, with projected growth of 4.8% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2025. Intra-bloc and external cooperation continues to expand, while the regional bloc’s centrality, standing, and credibility are increasingly reinforced.

To maintain these gains amid growing global uncertainties, ASEAN must fully tap its internal potential, support a rules-based multilateral trading system, make effective use of existing trade agreements, enhance connectivity, and take a proactive role in shaping the region’s future through frameworks and initiatives such as the ASEAN Power Grid and the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement.

ASEAN leaders also agreed to formally admit Timor-Leste as the bloc’s 11th member at the 47th ASEAN Summit in October 2025, and tasked ministers and senior officials with negotiating its accession documents.

PM Pham Minh Chinh sets out cooperation priorities

In his remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked ASEAN leaders for their heartfelt condolences on the passing of former President Tran Duc Luong.

He expressed strong support for the summit’s core theme of “Inclusion and Sustainability,” voicing confidence that Malaysia, as 2025 ASEAN Chair, would steer the association through current challenges and praised ASEAN’s timely coordination and leadership in recent times.

He noted that the world is facing growing instability and unpredictability, alongside rising political polarization, economic fragmentation, institutional divergence, and development disparities.

Such a complex environment, he said, calls for ASEAN to fully embody five principles: greater unity for combined strength, greater resilience to take charge of its own destiny, greater proactivity in shaping the regional order, greater inclusiveness to remain a shared home for all members, and greater sustainability for the sake of future generations.

The Vietnamese Government leader voiced strong support for the adoption of the "ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future" document and proposed three areas of focus moving forward.

First, ASEAN should reshape its development thinking by placing inclusion at the core, innovation as the driver, and sustainability as the goal. He urged relevant ASEAN bodies to consider including “sustainability” as a criterion for assessing the implementation of ASEAN’s 2045 strategies, which rest on three pillars: green economy, inclusive society, and smart governance.

He also proposed mobilizing resources from both the public and private sectors to boost digital transformation, science and technology, and innovation, and to develop region-wide initiatives that inspire broader partner involvement.

Second, ASEAN must deepen connectivity and expand linkages beyond the region by diversifying products, markets, and supply chains. He welcomed the expansion of successful formats such as the ASEAN–Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit and the ASEAN–GCC–China Economic Summit to other partners, including Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance.

PM Chinh also called on ASEAN to maintain a strong collective voice, uphold the principles of free, fair, and inclusive trade, and reaffirm its commitment to multilateralism. He expressed confidence that Timor-Leste’s future accession would contribute meaningfully to ASEAN’s resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability.

Third, ASEAN should strengthen its central role and regional resilience. PM Chinh stressed that ASEAN’s success will depend on its ability to safeguard strategic autonomy and independence in regional decision-making. Centrality must be reflected not only in rhetoric but also in action, through consensus, internal cohesion, and greater capacity to adapt to external shocks.

Amid rising cross-border crime, the Vietnamese Government chief also announced Vietnam’s proposal for an ASEAN Declaration on strengthening cooperation in apprehending wanted criminals and expressed hope for support from fellow member states.

He concluded by expressing his belief that with shared trust and vision, ASEAN will weather all storms and continue to move forward with confidence. Vietnam, he affirmed, remains committed to being a responsible, proactive, and constructive member of ASEAN, working toward a community that is “more united, more resilient, more proactive, more inclusive, and more sustainable” for today and for the future.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia bolster tripartite cooperation on sidelines of ASEAN Summit

VOV.VN - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on May 26 hosted a working breakfast with his Cambodian and Lao counterparts Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet and Sonexay Siphandone on the sidelines of the 46th ASEAN Summit and related meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.