Thirty years of Vietnam - ASEAN relations (1995 - 2025)
Abstract
Vietnam officially joined ASEAN in 1995. This is an important event not only for Vietnam but also for the whole Southeast Asia region. Joining ASEAN is a “stepping stone” that helps Vietnam to open the door to the world, gain more experience in international integration and a better position to participate and play an active role in multilateral cooperation organizations on a larger scale, such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), World Trade Organization (WTO) and United Nations. This event marked the time when the Southeast Asian region moved from confrontation to dialogue, from suspicion to trust, from division to unity. Vietnam becoming the 7th member also helped speed up the expansion of the Association to all 10 countries in the region, contributing to consolidating peace and stability in the region. Over the 30 years of taking part in ASEAN, Vietnam has fully participated, strictly fulfilled commitments and made effective contributions in all areas of cooperation of ASEAN. ASEAN has been given top priority in the implementation of Vietnam’s policy on raising multilateral foreign relations, which emphasizes its participation in building and shaping multilateral institutions actively, proactively as well as in coordination with ASEAN countries to build a powerful ASEAN Community responsibly.
