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The Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony to mark the 45th the founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 17 years since the country joined the group in Hanoi on August 8.

Addressing the celebration, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said after 45 years since its birth (August 8, 1967), ASEAN has overcome many ups and downs to become a credible and dynamic, socio-political and economic organization for the entire region.

 The most remarkable of ASEAN’S achievements is its effort to translate the ASEAN Charter into reality, thus creating a legal foundation and a regulatory framework increasing regional unity and reaching nearer the group’s goal of building an ASEAN Community by 2015 with the hope for wider connectivity in the region and the world, Minh added.

The FM said as an official ASEAN member since July 28, 1995, Vietnam has always stood side by side with other member countries to make a contribution to building and consolidating ASEAN, making it stronger as well as helping the group overcome difficulties and challenges and reap important achievements for the common goals of the association and the region.

He said now is an important transitional period for ASEAN because there are just more than two years left for the group to form its common community, while many challenges still lay ahead. That is why, ASEAN should spare no effort to ensure the roadmap and make its vision come true.

Mr Minh also said he believed that with its own identity, operational methods and basic principles, ASEAN will make a practical contribution to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world at large.

Following the celebration, the delegates enjoyed a cultural exchange of 10 ASEAN member countries and an ASEAN food festival.

The same day, the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations and the Vietnam-ASEAN Friendship and Cooperation Association also co-hosted a meeting to mark the event.

Speaking at the meeting, President of the Vietnam-ASEAN Friendship and Cooperation Association Le Cong Phung said that ASEAN was founded with the aim of strengthening economic, cultural and social cooperation among member countries and create favourable conditions for deeper regional and international integration.

From the first five members at its birth 45 years ago, ASEAN now has 10 member countries and has become a credible and active political-economic entity in the region, playing an important role in Southeast Asia and Asian-Pacific region, Mr Phung said.

He emphasized the group’s efforts in intensifying cooperation on politics-security, building principles of conduct and strengthening the mutual understanding and trust among the member countries. It has created multi-faceted forum with many important partners in the world, taking the initiative and holding a decisive role in some regional and interregional cooperation frameworks, especially the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which is the region’s only mechanism for political and security dialogues. It also facilitates cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, the East Asia Forum, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC).

Mr Phung also said that since it became an official member of the group in 1995, Vietnam has integrated much more effectively with countries in the region in all fields including politics, economics, culture and society. Vietnam has made important contributions to the growth of the association. People friendship exchange between Vietnam and other member countries has also improved significantly.

He expressed hopes that in the future, with the support from ASEAN countries’ ambassadors to Vietnam, friendship exchanges between Vietnam and each member country and the association will develop universally.

Representing the ambassadors and diplomats of ASEAN member countries to Vietnam, Brunei Ambassador Dato Mahadi Wasli emphasised the common effort of the 10 member countries’ governments and people in striving to achieve the goal of establishing the ASEAN Community by 2015, believing that the goal will become a reality to meet the demand and benefit of each member country and the whole association.

(VNA/VOV online)