Manila (VNA) – The SeniorOfficials’ Meeting (SOM) of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) took place inManila, the Philippines on May 24 to discuss preparations for the 24th ARF Ministerial Meeting slated for August in the country.

Deputy Foreign Minister NguyenQuoc Dung, head of the SOM ARF Vietnam, attended the event.

In his speech, Dung reiteratedVietnam’s consistent stance on the East Sea issue and underscored the importanceof settling disputes by peaceful means on the basis of respect to internationallaw, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS), as well as diplomatic and legal process.

Amid concerns over constructionand militarisation in the East Sea, he called on countries to further exerciseself-restraint, build trust and prevent incidents at sea.

He lauded efforts to seriouslyand fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea(DOC), the outcomes of ASEAN-China talks on building a Code of Conduct in theEast Sea (COC), including the recent consensus on a draft COC framework towardsreaching a practical, effective and legally-binding deal.

The meeting lauded positiveprogresses in the implementation of the Hanoi Plan of Action to realise the ARFVision 2020 and collaboration in priority areas such as maritime security,disaster relief, fight against terrorism and trans-national crime, arms controland disarmament.

Participants looked into newcooperation proposals and agreed on the list of activities for 2017-2018 tosubmit to ministers for adoption in August.

They stressed the need tocontinue strengthening basic principles of ARF such as consultation, preventivediplomacy and trust building in order to improve the capacity of coping withemerging challenges such as cyber security, piracy, terrorism, violence extremismand human trafficking, contributing to ensuring peace, security and commondevelopment in the region.

On the East Sea and KoreanPeninsula issues, they affirmed the significance of peaceful settlement ofdisputes in line with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS and relevantresolutions by the United Nations Security Council.

As scheduled, Vietnam, togetherwith the European Union and Australia, will co-chair the ARF Inter-SessionalMeeting on Maritime Security for the 2018-2020 period, and co-host with Japan theARF Experts and Eminent Persons’ Meeting in 2018, and organise the ARF seminaron strengthening cooperation in law enforcement at sea and peace maintenance in2017.-VNA