During the April 5 meeting, the two sides welcomed the establishment of the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in October last year, and expressed their belief that this will be a premise for deepening the bilateral cooperation in the coming time.
They reviewed the implementation of the ASEAN-China Plan of Action (POA) in 2021-2025, and discussed progress of cooperation between ASEAN and China in recent times.
Representatives from ASEAN member countries called on China to further promote cooperation in key areas such as sustainable development, smart cities, digital economy, education and vocational training, narrowing the development gap, and especially taking advantage of opportunities from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
For his part, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun affirmed that ASEAN is always a high priority in China's foreign policy.
He pledged to continue support for ASEAN in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, building the ASEAN Community, and strengthen its central role in the regional architecture.
In February 2022, the ACCF transferred a second aid package worth 5 million USD committed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund on the occasion of the ASEAN-China Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations.
China will continue to donate an additional 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and promote cooperation in technology transfer in producing vaccines against COVID-19 with ASEAN.
The Chinese side also emphasized that it will continue to support the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), and make efforts to narrow intra-bloc development gap through improving the efficiency of coordination between the IAI and cooperation within the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation.
The two sides acknowledged efforts and progress in developing a Code of Conduct in the East Sea, or South China Sea, (COC), and agreed to have an appropriate form of commemoration on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).
Source: VNA