US Vice President Mike Pence (second, right), Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (centre) and other ASEAN leaders at the 6th ASEAN-US Summit in Singapore on November 15 (Photo: VNA)

Addressing the summit, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc applauded the US’s role and contributions in the region, voicing his hope that ASEAN and the US will keep stepping up dialogue, building trust, holding up international law, forming and sharing common standards of conduct, and promoting an open, transparent and rule-based regional order.

He urged both sides to bolster fair, equal and win-win economic and trade practices. Regarding the US’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, he reiterated that ASEAN welcomes all initiatives helping with regional peace, stability and cooperation on the basis of respect for the basic principles and central role of the bloc. PM Phuc also repeated ASEAN’s consistent stance on the East Sea issue, noting that they hope for the US’s continued support for the regional countries’ efforts to increase dialogue and trust, promotion of self-restraint, non-militarisation, the cessation of threats to use force, peacefully resolving disputes in line with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; fully implementing the DOC and building an effective and substantive COC.

US Vice President Mike Pence affirmed that his country is committed to promoting ties with ASEAN and views the bloc as an important partner in the region. He stressed that the US supports ASEAN’s central role and will continue actively taking part in ASEAN-led projects, thus contributing to regional peace, security and stability.

At the end of the summit, participating leaders adopted an ASEAN-US statement on cyber security cooperation.