Throughout 23 years of joining ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Vietnam has always tried its best to accomplish its mission in the bloc. In the coming time, Vietnam has been fulfilling its mission.

ASEAN defence ministers during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) security summit in Singapore, Oct 19, 2018. (Photo: Roslan Rahman)

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, in the coming time, Vietnam needs to identify three major goals:

First, ASEAN, in both multilateral cooperation and bilateral relations, is strategically significant as it is directly related to our country's security and development environment. It is an area suitable for Vietnam and its strength, which is an important factor for Vietnam to expand its foreign relations and international integration. ASEAN has a strategic importance in Vietnam’s foreign policy. Therefore, Vietnam will continue to implement measures to deepen friendly relations and comprehensive cooperation, in essence with ASEAN countries in both multilateral and bilateral levels.

Secondly, the overarching goal of Vietnam's participation in ASEAN is to contribute to the creation of a peaceful, stable and more cooperative regional environment to effectively support the cause of national construction and defense; facilitate the implementation of the policy of international integration and promote relations with external partners, especially with large countries. Therefore, Vietnam will continue to participate in ASEAN with the motto "proactively, actively and responsibly", but should play a greater role, a pivotal role, leading the issues that we have direct benefits and strengths, propose many initiatives and projects feasible; persist in principle issues but need flexibility in measures and procedures to ensure ASEAN consensus.

Third, Vietnam needs to be better prepared internally, especially to raise awareness of ASEAN as well as the importance of Vietnam's participation in ASEAN cooperation to attract and invest resources like worth; put forth initiative in proposing valuable and feasible initiatives and projects; to further strengthen the close cooperation among ministries and branches participating in ASEAN cooperation; regularly review and adjust domestic regulations to facilitate the implementation of ASEAN commitments.

Vietnam officially joined ASEAN on 28 July 1995 on the occasion of the 28^th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM-28) in Brunei. However, the process of Vietnam joining ASEAN has been started since before. Vietnam has always played a pivotal role in identifying the objectives and directions for development and formulation of major ASEAN policies, such as Vision 2020 and its plans for implementation of the ASEAN Charter, Roadmap ASEAN Community 2015 and many other important agreements, including connectivity and narrowing development gap.

The Southeast Asian country have also actively participated in building the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, which aims to make the ASEAN cohesion far wider and more important in the region. Vietnam has also fulfilled its responsibilities as a member country through its chairmanship of ASEAN and hosted many large conferences./.

VNF