On November 14, in Singapore, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc joined leaders of ASEAN and China to attend the 21st ASEAN-China Summit and celebrate 15 years of strategic partnership between two sides....
At the Conference, ASEAN and Chinese leaders reaffirmed the importance of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership for regional peace, security and stability. Countries noted that ASEAN-China relations continued to grow strongly on the basis of mutual trust, understanding and respect. China has continuously been ASEAN's largest trading partner for many years, as well as being the leading foreign investor in ASEAN. Dialogues and exchanges between ASEAN and China are maintained regularly at all levels. Cooperation is promoted extensively in many areas, from politics and security to economics, culture, society and people-to-people exchanges. Leaders welcomed the positive results in the ASEAN-China creation year 2018 and agreed to continue to effectively implement the ASEAN-China Communications Exchange Year 2019.
Prime Minister of China, Li Keqiang highly appreciated the international role and position of ASEAN, acknowledging the positive results of cooperation between the two sides over the past time, creating a solid foundation for continuous expansion of strategic partnership. Prime Minister of China affirmed the principle that two sides continue to respect and meet each other's common interests, promote cooperation with prosperity and mutual benefit; agreed that ASEAN and China would continue their close relations in economics, trade and investment with the effort to achieve two-way trade turnover of USD 1,000 billion and that of FDI reaching USD 150 billion by 2020; at the same time, effectively upgrade and exploit ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), support the open, transparent and law-based multilateral international trade system. China announced the plan to contribute an additional USD 10 million to the ASEAN-China Cooperation Fund and implement the program to invite 1,000 young people from ASEAN countries to visit and for exchanges in China.
Prime Minister Li Keqiang affirmed that China would continue its efforts with ASEAN to complete COC Code within the next 3 years, fully implement the DOC declaration and contribute to peace, stability, safety and freedom in maritime and aviation and free trade in the East Sea.
Speaking at the Conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized the significance of ASEAN-China strategic partnership as well as the great benefits that this relationship brings to both ASEAN and China as well as to peace, stability and development in the region.
The Prime Minister agreed that both sides should promote dialogues, strengthen cooperation, build trust, respect international law, build codes of conduct; contribute to transparent and rules-based regional structure. The Prime Minister supported ASEAN-China’s efforts to consolidate and develop a solid foundation of overall connectivity in terms of trust, material and human connection
Regarding East Sea issue, the Prime Minister said that the situation in the field was still complicated, causing concern for all parties and could have an unfavorable impact on stability in the region. The Prime Minister stressed that ASEAN and China should continue to uphold the agreed principles on promoting dialogues, building trust, respecting international laws, building and complying with codes of conduct, peacefully resolving disputes on the basis of international laws and UN Convention on Law of the Sea in 1982, which say not to militarize nor take action to complicate the situation, fully implementing DOC Declaration and building an effective and intensive COC code.
At the end of the conference, two sides agreed to adopt 2030 vision of ASEAN-China strategic Partnership, which directs the cooperation between two sides in the next 20 years, and adopt common statement of ASEAN-China on the technology and creativity.
