Canberra (VNA) – The Committee of the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Canberra held a ceremony in theAustralian capital city on August 13 to celebrate the bloc’s 52nd foundinganniversary (August 8).

The event saw the presence of Governor-Generalof Australia David Hurley and his spouse, ambassadors and diplomats of ASEANcountries, along with many senior officials of the Australian parliament andgovernment. Vietnamese Ambassador Ngo Huong Nam and members of Vietnam’srepresentative agencies in Australia also attended the celebration.

In his speech, Myanmar Ambassador Tha Aung Nyun,who is also holding the rotational chairmanship of the ASEAN Committee in Canberra,said after 52 years, ASEAN has become a politically cohesive, economicallyintegrated and socially responsible community that is oriented towards andcentres on people. Its member countries have stayed united in diversity andtogether developed and managed differences among them in a positive andconstructive manner.

ASEAN is working towards a full community whichwas set up on December 31, 2015. To that end, its members pledge to effectivelywork with the bloc’s dialogue partners and other relevant parties whilemaintaining its centrality and solidarity, he stressed.

Regarding ASEAN-Australia relations, the MyanmarAmbassador hailed the strides in their dialogue relationship over the last 44years, with the most recent demonstration being the successful ASEAN-AustraliaSpecial Summit in Sydney in March 2018 and the adoption of the SydneyDeclaration.

He affirmed that ASEAN welcomes Australia’ssupport for its central role and pledges to cooperate with the country viaASEAN-chaired mechanisms.

The diplomat highlighted breakthroughs inASEAN-Australia economic ties over the past years. Bilateral trade reached 65.5billion USD in 2018, making it the seventh biggest trade partner of ASEAN amongthe grouping’s dialogue partners.

Meanwhile, the environment for the two sides’businesses to operate has been improved through the removal of trade barriersunder the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area. They are also workingtowards the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),which gathers the 10 ASEAN member nations, Australia and some other countries,he added.


At the ceremony, Governor-General of AustraliaDavid Hurley affirmed his country’s support for and high valuation on thedialogue relationship with ASEAN.

He noted regional forums that focus on ASEAN butare open to international partners like the East Asia Summit (EAS) and theASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) provide Australia and other partners with mechanismsfor effective bilateral and multilateral engagement in the region.-VNA