Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives ASEAN Chairmanship hammer from Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies and the shiningstars of ASEAN, and dualdiplomatic responsibility in 2020 offers rare opportunityfor Vietnam, according to an Eurasia Review analysis.
This year,Vietnam faces a densediplomatic schedule, with the chairmanship coinciding with Vietnam’snon-permanent membership of the UN Security Council, Dr. Frederick Kliem fromS.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Singapore-based NanyangTechnological University wrote in an analysis published on the Eurasia Review on February 6.
“This poseslogistical challenges for the country,” he said, “but this dual diplomatic responsibility alsooffers a rare opportunity for Hanoi to present a well-coordinated foreignpolicy and achieve maximum impact.”
“Inparticular, Hanoi should leverage the ASEAN agenda at the global stage at theUN, something previous ASEAN chairs have done with remarkable success,” he added.
He noted that Vietnam may attempt to set newdirections for ASEAN-led mechanisms, including the East Asia Summit (EAS) andthe ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and there will be efforts toadvance cross-sectoral and cross-pillar approaches to better coordinate andtackle emerging security challenges within these forums.
Within theASEAN Economic Community (AEC) pillar, Vietnam will seek to promote specificintra-ASEAN partnerships for sustainable development in order to boostintra-ASEAN trade and investment, and ASEAN sustainability measures, he said.
Under theASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), Hanoi will try to raise ASEAN awarenessby seeking to enhance social security for the most vulnerable ASEAN citizens, topromote cooperation mechanisms to combat fake news, and raise the idea to placethe ASEAN symbol on passports.
GivenVietnam’s increasingly active role on the global stage and within ASEAN, aswell as the challenging regional environment and difficult issues, there willbe much to observe in ASEAN in 2020 and Vietnam is uniquely well placed to moveASEAN forward, he reiterated./.
VNA
