The foundation of ASEAN Community is scheduled for December 31^st 2015. This will mark an important milestone in the history of ASEAN. Under  the same roof, the peoples of Southeast Asia will live, bond, share the interests with one another, and develop in their new path. Though not having come true yet, right at the moment, the event attracts the attention of international community.

A workshop on an ASEAN Community by 2015 (photo: VNA)

Since its inception (August 8^th 1967), ASEAN has both developed its membership and increasingly promoted its role in regional cooperation and integration, strengthening solidarity, understanding, and mutual confidence among Southeast Asian nations. Also, ASEAN has been in the lead to promote dialogue and cooperation for peace, security through its initiation of various current regional forums in which it has played a central role with the participation of many partners; at the same time, it is playing an increasingly important role in the Asia-Pacific region. In its processes, ASEAN’s mechanisms of cooperation and methods of working have been gradually perfected and developed; notably, building an ASEAN Community by 2015 will be among the most outstanding achievements.

Peace, sustainability, integration, development towards the people are ASEAN Community’s objectives and lines. There are 3 main pillars in ASEAN Community’s structure, namely:  ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC), ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). ASEAN member states have proposed concrete and practical measures in their road map to build an ASEAN Community, including the master plans on building ASEAN Community’s three pillars, the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), and the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC). Accordingly, ASEAN has strived to build a peaceful and secured environment for regional development; one sole common market and unified production premises; free movement of goods, service, investment, capital and labour of high caliber; enhancement of competitiveness and promotion of wealth for the whole region; attractiveness of investment and business from the outside; a sharing, caring, and responsible society towards the people. Up to now, ASEAN has completed approximately 85% of its objectives and measures proposed in the master plans on building the ASEAN Community with about 85%, 81%, and 97% of the plans to build ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community respectively. Moreover, ASEAN member states have completed approximately 40% of the master plan on ASEAN connectivity, and 285 projects within the framework of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration together. For these results, ASEAN is on the way to cross the finishing line, building an ASEAN Community on December 31^st 2015. The process of building the Community has also created added impetus for the effort made to maintain peace, sustainability, strengthen economic integration within the Association and Asia-Pacific region, unceasingly improving people’s living standards.

Promoting Vietnam’s proactive, active, and responsible role in building an ASEAN Community by 2015

Over the past 20 years of ASEAN membership, Vietnam has fulfilled its responsibilities and duties, making positive and significant contribution to ASEAN’s affairs, development and success.

Particularly, Vietnam has comprehensively, deeply, and extensively engaged in all ASEAN’s fields of cooperation; proactively taking part in building direction for development and discussing to establish ASEAN’s major policies; actively together with other member states implementing ASEAN’S priorities of cooperation, especially effectively implementing the roadmap to build the Community on time. In 2014, Vietnam, together with other member states, accelerated commitments and was among the ASEAN member states that completed the action lines in the road map with high proportions.

In political-security field, Vietnam and other ASEAN member states have continued to speed up 14 areas of priority, implementing the remaining goals in the Master Plan on ASEAN Political-Security Community; particularly, taking on, chairing, and carrying out 4 action lines of the 32 remaining measures, which are thought to be hard to fulfil due to sensitivity and complexity. Vietnam has actively conducted the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting’s initiative on setting up direct line of communication among ASEAN Defence Ministers; successfully hosting the ASEAN Maritime Forum (AMF) and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF), contributing to enhancing the forum’s role towards peace, sustainability, maritime security and safety as well as freedom of navigation in the region. Vietnam has also taken part in concrete actions of ASEAN as well those between ASEAN and its partners in the prevention of terrorism and crime.

In economic field, Vietnam is one of the three countries who have the highest proportion in fulfilling the objectives of the Master Plan on ASEAN Economic Community (84.5%); actively taking part in negotiation to create measures to facilitate commerce, investment, service; proactively realizing commitments on decreasing import tariff to 0-5% under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (for most of the tariff lines in the regularly-cut category) and striving to fulfil the commitment on eliminating tariff on products in the priorities, expanding economic cooperation and connectivity between ASEAN and its partners.

In socio-cultural field, Vietnam has proactively proposed initiatives, backing cooperation in the priorities of ASEAN, namely social welfare, environment, disaster control, climate change, protection of migrant labour’s rights.

Dealing with complicated developments in the East Sea, especially China’s illegal placement of its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, we persevered in discussing with other regional countries to increase the level of consensus; together with them expressing concern over developments threatening regional peace and security; calling for restraint, not using or threatening to use violence, persistently resolving disputes peacefully in accordance with international law; particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and regional agreements in order to guarantee peace, sustainability, security, maritime and air safety in the East Sea.

Actively and proactively building the Association’s direction of development after 2015

The building of an ASEAN Community is a period of developmental process. The establishment of an ASEAN Community, scheduled for December 31^st 2015 is not the final target of ASEAN integration but  a new period of the Association. On the basis of mutual awareness, ASEAN member states agreed to build the ASEAN Community’s post-2015 Vision (2016-2025), which needs the inheritance from the outcomes from the implementation the 2009-2015 roadmap to build an ASEAN Community; at the same time, lifting ASEAN and region’s integration and connectivity to a higher level. ASEAN has now formed the High Level Task Force, including representatives from 10 member states. The Task Force has conducted negotiations with determination to finish content of the Vision Draft by the end of this year so as to submit it to the 27^th ASEAN Summit (in November 2015). To continue bringing into play Vietnam's proactiveness and responsibility over more than 20 years of participation; at the same time, to strive for contribution to building and shaping the common rules of play, our line in the critical year 2015 is more effective and deeper engagement in ASEAN integration activities.

Le Hoai Trung

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs