Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN, was quoted as saying the following in an article published in the New Year’s edition of the daily publication of the People’s Army Newspaper.
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At a discussion between the UN and ASEAN on maintaining peace and security under the chair of Vietnam on January, 2020 |
The diplomat said that becoming a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the 2020-2021 period in the context that the COVID-19 virus was spreading globally, Vietnam had to handle a heavy workload. Particularly, the Mission representing Vietnam and ASEAN participated in thousands of meetings at all levels with around 500 speeches on various issues, including peace, security, development, and protection of human rights. The Mission also contributed to the building of hundreds of documents for the UNSC and the UN General Assembly. Especially, various important documents drafted by Vietnam received active support from UN member countries and were adopted.
At the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, from September 15 to 29, a Vietnam-proposed resolution proclaiming December 27 as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness was adopted. The resolution was a practical step to realize the Secretariat’s directive on raising the level of multilateral diplomacy by 2030 and promoting Vietnam’s role in leading and proposing ideas at multilateral mechanisms, thus raising the country’s position and prestige in the international community.
Mentioning Vietnam’s fulfillment of its role as President of UNSC in the first month of 2020, Quy recalled that after taking the rotary presidency of the UNSC, Vietnam selected a priority theme in January of promoting the adherence to the UN Charter. The country’s topic attracted a great deal of attention from all UN member states. The theme of the debate “Upholding the UN Charter to Maintain International Peace and Security” attracted 111 speeches, the largest number in the history of open debates of the UNSC.
Last year, the world experienced a number of problems, especially the crisis in Syria and conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, requiring the UNSC to take prompt actions to deal with them. Throughout the year, the UNSC held various online meetings to seek timely and sound policies to handle problems. Personnel in Hanoi and New York closely coordinated with each other and worked around the clock to issue timely and sound policies to deal with problems effectively.
Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN, as Chair of the ASEAN Committee in New York, regularly exchanged information with missions of other ASEAN member countries and introduced initiatives to successfully host activities in New York during Vietnam’s ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020. The Vietnamese mission also represented ASEAN at working sessions of the UN General Assembly and its committees.
Amid the complicated development of the COVID-19, the UN in general and the Vietnamese mission quickly adapted to the new situation by hosting online meetings and banquets to reduce close contact among participants. Members of the mission strictly applied prompt measures to combat SARS-CoV-2 and protected Vietnamese citizens in foreign countries. The mission also cooperated with other organizations to fly home 1,000 Vietnamese citizens from New York and adjacent areas.
Another success obtained by the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN was the adoption of the Vietnam-drafted ASEAN-UN cooperation resolution, which was passed for the first time in 2002 and is revised on a biennial basis with the aim to promote bilateral cooperation. The adoption of the document reaffirmed the important role of ASEAN and developed the cooperative partnership between ASEAN and the UN.
Vietnam, as the 2020 ASEAN Chair, started drafting the ASEAN-UN cooperation resolution in late October after a lot of important materials for the compilation of the resolution were approved by the UNSC and ASEAN. Within a month, the country regularly updated and exchanged information through both bilateral and multilateral channels to complete the draft document, held consultations with ASEAN member countries, and conducted negotiations with UN member states. Although the resolution was drafted and negotiated in the shortest time ever in the history of UN-ASEAN cooperation, it has received a record number of supporters since it was first introduced in 2002.
Vietnam’s activities at the UN have actively contributed to raising Vietnam’s status in the world, strengthening its relationship with other member countries of the UN, and upholding the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter.
Translated by Tran Hoai