TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Unity, solidarity key to ASEAN success: Vietnamese party leader
Change Size
Closer relations: President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo shakes hands with ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Throng after they conveyed a press statement at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday. (Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
A
SEAN, which is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year, must strive to uphold the grouping’s unity and solidarity, a Vietnamese official has said.
“The history of ASEAN has proven that whenever we stood united on the basis of harmonizing our common interests, the role and voice of the association would be respected and upheld,” ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) secretary-general Nguyen Phu Throng said in Jakarta on Wednesday in a public lecture titled “ASEAN in the next 50: For our Bright Future.”
“ASEAN solidarity is a core value, shaped throughout ASEAN’s history, and it is also its future.”
The lecture was organized by Jakarta-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Ambassadors, scholars, politicians and businesspeople, CSIS members, including CSIS founder Jusuf Wanandi and executive director Phillips J. Vermonte, attended the gathering at the CSIS office.
Nguyen, a veteran party ideologue and former journalist, said consultations and consensus would remain important and distinctive features of ASEAN's decision-making process. He commended Indonesia’s principles of mufakat (consultation) and musyawarah (consensus), saying they formed the backbone of the “ASEAN Way.”
While admitting that there had been difficulties for ASEAN to achieve consensus on a spate of issues, Nguyen said consensus-building was an important part of achieving solidarity.
"We need to continue the consultations to achieve consensus, [because] without consensus it is impossible to have solidarity and unity within ASEAN," he said. (ebf)
