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Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung (C) addressé the online High-level Dialogue (Source: vov.vn)

Those in attendance included representatives of ASEAN member states, the ASEAN Secretariat, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and relevant UN agencies, the VOV reported.

Addressing the fourth High-level Dialogue on Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on June 4, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung proposed several orientations to effectively carry out the complementary roadmap during 2020-2025 by putting the people at the centre in policy-making and carrying out sustainable development programmes and projects.

Dung, who is head of the ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) of Vietnam, stressed the importance of intensifying technology application in promoting sustainable development, policy-making, as well as national and regional sustainable development strategies; maintaining economic integration; resume supply chains and foster intra-bloc trade and investment.

He affirmed that Vietnam has actively stepped up joint efforts among ASEAN in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said the VNA.

Challenges such as gender inequality, poverty, food security, climate change and digital gap are a “test” for core development values to ensure the self-reliance, cohesiveness, responsiveness, and sustainable development of each country and the whole world, he added.

Delegates said that sustainable development remains a priority in regional and international cooperation agendas, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

They proposed orientations to effectively carry out the complementary roadmap during 2020-2025 in the five main fields: poverty reduction, infrastructure and connectivity, sustainable management of natural resources, sustainable production and consumption, and self-reliance.

The event marks an annual dialogue framework organised by Thailand, the ASEAN co-ordinating country for sustainable development, and the UNESCAP, which has occurred annually since 2017 with the aim of promoting co-operation schemes and projects which strive for sustainable development.

Participants noted their great appreciation for efforts made by Thailand and UNESCAP to promote online meetings as a way of maintaining the spirit of co-operation amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

In addition, the occasion serves to affirm that sustainable development remains a top priority in both the regional and international co-operation agenda, something that is becoming increasingly urgent in the face of the various impacts of the epidemic, therefore posing great challenges to the economy, along with the political and cultural life of countries and both regional and international organisations.

During this speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Dung emphasized the ASEAN theme for 2020 of “Cohesion and Proactive Adaptation". Indeed, the nation has been proactively and swiftly stepping up the regional bloc’s joint efforts to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that challenges such as inequality, poverty, food security, health, education, climate change, and a digital gap are "litmus tests".

These issues challenge core development values to ensure the resilience, cohesion, proactive adaptation, and sustainable development of each country as well as the entire world.

The Vietnamese diplomat affirmed that, in the nation’s role as the ASEAN Chair 2020 and as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam will continue to push ahead sustainable development co-operation in line with the goal of building a cohesive and responsive ASEAN towards realising the ASEAN Vision 2025.

Besides, according to the reuters, Britain has applied to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the government said on Friday, as it seeks to boost post-Brexit ties in the region.

ASEAN has 10 existing dialogue partners including the European Union, which Britain left at the end of January, as well as Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States.

Britain said it hoped partnership status with the 10-member ASEAN, which seeks to accelerate economic growth, social progress and collaboration in the region, would lead to new opportunities across trade, education, science and security.

"As Asia grows in importance, global Britain will cooperate even more closely with our friends in the region," British foreign minister Dominic Raab said in a statement.

"By becoming one of ASEAN's Dialogue Partners, we can strengthen our ability to cooperate across the Indo-Pacific region, as a force for good, on everything from climate change to regional stability."

Britain already has an ambassador to ASEAN, whose members include Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, and said being a dialogue partner would allow Britain to attend annual ASEAN summits and ministerial meetings.

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