Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam highly values and welcomes the outcomes of the strategic partnership between ASEAN and New Zealand, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said at the 24th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue held in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 21-22.
On behalf of ASEAN member states, Dung, who is also Chair of the ASEAN-Vietnam Senior Officials’ Meeting, spoke highly of New Zealand’s role and contributions to regional defence-security over the past years, noting that both sides need to increase collaboration to uphold the role and increase efficiency of regional security cooperation mechanisms led by ASEAN.
He called for joint work to build the capacity of coping with security challenges, including preventive diplomatic measures and improvement of the capacity of law enforcement agencies, as well as maritime coordination.
Dung stressed that narrowing development gap is an important priority of ASEAN and of Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV).
Vietnam proposed several specific measures and asked ASEAN partners, including New Zealand, to continue offering technical and capacity building support to the bloc, so that ASEAN can successfully conduct the third stage of the Working Plan of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), towards realising the ASEAN Vision 2025.
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