Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Duong Hai Hung (fourth from the left) at the meeting with leaders of the Italy-ASEAN Association (Photo: VNA)

Rome (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy DuongHai Hung, Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Rome (ACR), on February 20 chaired meetingswith important partners in Italy to further promote relations between the blocand the European country.

At a meeting with leaders of the Italy-ASEAN Association (IAA),including its president Romano Prodi, who is former Italian Prime Minister,the two sides looked back at notable developments in the cooperation between ASEAN andItaly since Italy became an ASEAN Development Partner in September 2020.

ASEAN countries' Ambassadors presented the priority of ASEAN in 2023 andmade a number of proposals on the IAA's collaboration with and support for the ACR's activities in 2023.

Meanwhile, IAA leaders updated the ACR on progress of somecooperation projects that the association is participating in such as the VirtualLearning Centre for Italy and ASEAN on cultural heritage and sustainable development, the awards for outstanding thesis on ASEAN in 2023 and the Italy-ASEAN High-Level Dialogueslated to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in October.

Prodi emphasised the growing importance ofthe ASEAN region in Italy's policy, saying ASEAN is not only a part of Asia,but has also become an essential factor for peace, security and prosperity in theregion and in the world.

ASEAN's successfulintegration turns it into an important market for Italy w🌠ith the presence of morethan 600 Italian companies in the region, he said.

The same day, ACR had a working session with Manlio Di Stefano,former Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy and now senior advisor of Axiom Space,a privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered inHouson, Texas. At the session, the ambassadors said ASEAN wants to expand international cooperation to strengthen its capacity and research and human resource training in the space sector.

In the context that many ASEAN countries are developing nationalspace programmes, they highly appreciated the opportunit🌱ies to meetand exchange with partners with strong space science and technology potentialin the world in the exploration and exploitation of outer space for peacefulpurposes./.