Việt Nam fulfills its role as ASEAN Chair and member of UN Security Council

2020 was a special year with the regional and global situation changing quickly while the COVID-19 pandemic left huge impacts across all aspects of society, politics and economics.

Under the leadership of the Party and the Government however, Việt Nam has managed to both contain the domestic COVID-19 situation and maintain a stable environment for socio-economic growth, which helps to facilitate diplomatic work.

Despite the pandemic, our diplomatic activities – on both bilateral and multilateral fronts – still went ahead thanks to the switch to virtual formats.

Thirty-three high-level phone calls have taken place between the General Secretary, to Prime Minister and National Assembly Chair and leaders of most important countries in the region and around the world this year, with the agenda of promoting ties completed. This was quite unprecedented since usually there are about 20 high-level visits from other leaders to Việt Nam and vice versa each year.

Việt Nam has succeeded in its role as ASEAN Chair, Chair of 41st ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and non-permanent member of the UN Security Council this year.

We have continued to adapt ASEAN’s centrality and solidarity into new changes. At the same time, Việt Nam has made contributions to addressing concerns by the UN Security Council as a country that represents the voice of developing countries and small and middle countries at this important body.

Regarding economic integration, in 2020, Việt Nam has expedited talks and eventually ratified the Europe-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, and together with other countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Also in 2020, Việt Nam has carried out citizen protection efforts well. With the emergence of the pandemic, the demands have risen to unseen levels, the number of calls from Vietnamese citizens overseas to Vietnamese missions abroad have jumped by 200 per cent. Việt Nam is one of the few countries to arrange repatriation flights to bring stranded citizens back home. This year alone, 260 such flights have been conducted, taking over 73,000 citizens from 59 countries and territories back to Việt Nam.

With the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2020, we had hoped that there would be large groups of reporters and media coming to Việt Nam to cover the meetings, which will help to promote the image of Việt Nam, but the pandemic has ruined the plan. However, Vietnamese media have made use of digital platforms to reach out to a wider audience globally compared to usual scenarios.

The East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) continues to witness complicated developments and uncertainties, but we have managed to keep a stable environment here via numerous measures, including the utilisation of bilateral tools.

In all high-level exchanges, Việt Nam always raises the issue of the South China Sea and underlines Việt Nam’s wish to maintain a peaceful and stable environment in the area, with respect to international law, especially 1982 UNCLOS, and refrain from activities that complicate the situation.

Our viewpoint, also raised at international forums and ASEAN meetings, was welcomed by countries both inside and outside the region. We have continued to conduct rightful economic activities in the sea regions within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as normal./.