Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese Deputy Foreign MinisterNguyen Quoc Dung, Hea🌊d of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, on September 1 chaired a virtual special meeting of ASEAN senior officials on the bl𓆏oc’s external relations.

During the meeting, the officials lauded Vietnam’s initiative toorganise the meeting, which gives a chance for participants to share opinionson ASEAN’s foreign relations, thus building a common strategic, comprehensiveand effective approach to the implementation of ASEAN's external affairs amidstthe rapidly and complicatedly changing situation in the region and the world. They underlined that in relations with all partners, ASEAN’s central role must be placed at the top through positive, active andbalanced engagement. The officials agreed that it’s time for the association to review itsrelations with outside partners, focusing on evaluating the contributions ofpartners to the completion of the region’s goals. They agreed to review the criteriafor the recognition of ASEAN’s partners, thus ensuring the bloc’s centralrole and meeting the demand and interest of partners. Dung affirmed thesignificant role of partners in peace, stability and prosperity in the region. He stressed the urgent need to build regulations to recognise partnershiprelations of the association in the current period, which he held that onceagain shows the active responsiveness of ASEAN. The Deputy Foreign Minister called on all member countries to promptly complete thebuilding of criteria for the evaluation of external relations to submit toASEAN leaders./.