Ambassador Vu Ho, Acting Head of ASEAN SOM  Vietnam (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Ambassador Vu Ho, Acting Head of  ASEAN SOM Vietnam, attended an online meeting of senior officials from countries joining the East Asia Summit (EAS), comprising ASEAN member countries and China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Russia and the US, on Wednesday.

He said that in the current context, it is necessary to further promote the strategic role of the EAS in encouraging dialogue and cooperation, strengthening mutual trust and understanding, equality, mutual respect, disagreement management and difference reduction, thus stabilizing the relations of world powers, ensuring no harms to the common development of the region as well as peace, security and stability in the region and the world.

The Vietnamese official reaffirmed the principled standpoints of the ASEAN regarding East Sea issues, highlighting the necessity to promote dialogue and cooperation, building trust, uphold international law, exercise restraint, conduct no militarization activities, settle disputes and differences through peaceful measures, support efforts to continue to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and finalize a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), thus contributing to making the East Sea a sea of peace, cooperation and development.