Four keynote speakers from research agencies of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and the US and other experts highlighted ASEAN’s role in managing disputes and strengthening regional cooperation.

They also looked into the reality of the marine cooperation in the framework of ASEAN-led mechanisms over the past time and worked on proposals on improving the efficiency of ASEAN’s engagement in the East Sea in the time to come.

Addressing the dialogue, Doctor Le Hai Binh, Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, said that in the context that Vietnam will become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 period and will take the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020, the dialogue was practical to seek new ideas on ASEAN cooperation in the East Sea and propose them to policy-making circles of countries as well as to raise the public’s awareness of external affairs activities in the coming time.

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At the dialogue

In his speech, Australian Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam Rebbeca Bryant spoke highly of the embassy’s cooperation with the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, the KAS, and the engagement of the Foundation for East Sea Studies in organizing such a dialogue on important regional issues. She stressed that Australia commits itself to supporting ASEAN’s central role in the Indo-Pacific region and highly appreciates ASEAN’s important contributions to maintaining security and stability in the region over the past five decades.

On behalf of the organizing panel, Peter Girke, Head of KAS in Hanoi, said that the ocean dialogues aimed to discuss a strategy to conduct small steps in regional cooperation with priority given to reaching common views on regional issues and building trust through solving less-sensitive issues, such as environmental pollution and fish resources reduction.

He believed that if the approach is implemented, countries in the region will find it easy to address long-term challenges and conflicts.

Translated by Mai Huong