Ambassador Vu Ho, acting head of SOM ASEAN Viet Nam

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son showed active and positive engagement in all activities of the meeting, highlighting the spirit of Viet Nam at the event and bringing to India a spirit of the 50-year-ties with the meeting’s host, he said.

Ho said that the Vietnamese FM’s speech at the event focused on the promotion of the close partnership between India and ASEAN as well as Viet Nam in all issues of the region, making full use of the reached achievements and optimising the collaboration potential between India and ASEAN in general and Viet Nam in particular for lifting the ties to a new height.

At the meeting, FM Son clearly affirmed Viet Nam’s standpoints on all regional and international matters as well as disputes and competitions among world powers, and emerging issues in the region such as the East Sea and Myanmar issues, he said, adding that the Vietnamese representative even mentioned conflicts in other regions in the world.

According to Ambassador Ho, while making positive contributions to the meeting, Vietnam spread the message of its Party and State to the all circles of India after the 13^th National Party Congress, especially when FM Son attended the 12^th Delhi Dialogue, an important dialogue of the South Asian region on policy-related matters held in parallel with the SAIFMM.

Ho said he believes that Viet Nam’s contributions to the success of the SAIFMM will be further promoted in the future. The proposals given by Viet Nam at the meeting will become the common assets of Viet Nam and India during their future partnership, he stated.

According to Ambassador Ho, the SAIFMM carried special meaning, as it marked the 30^th anniversary of the ASEAN-India relationship, and was the first of its kind held in in-person format after a long disruption due to COVID-19.

It gave a chance for all parties to evaluate regional and international situation as well as recent complicated developments, thus sketching out future orientations for the ASEAN-India cooperation.

Mentioning major outcomes of the SAIFMM, Ambassador Ho said that one of the important successes of the meeting is helping both sides clearly see the values of cooperation and dialogue, thus working together for peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

Meanwhile, on the foundation of the long-standing relationship between Southeast Asian countries and India, it could be seen that both sides are keen on lifting their partnership to new height, he said, noting that ASEAN and India are currently sharing a strategic partnership.

Amidst the complicated regional and global situation, the spirit of dialogue and cooperation must be maintained, which is the major message of the meeting, he underlined.

Another success of the meeting is the parties’ review of all of their cooperation activities over the past time, especially during the COVID-19 period, said the diplomat.

He held that the ASEAN-India future cooperation orientations will concentrate on optimising all achieved outcomes and great potential of both sides, including the potential in economic collaboration between the 2-billion-strong ASEAN and India markets with a combined GDP of nearly 6 trillion USD.

Ambassador Ho also highlighted the meeting’s success in affirming the countries’ determination to maintain peace and stability in the region through dialogue, negotiation and trust-building. Both ASEAN countries and India committed to using dialogue and cooperation to deal with disagreements and contradictions in relations among states and countries, he added.

In conclusion, he stated that the SAIFMM transferred a message of straightforward dialogue, sincere cooperation and harmony of all interests./.