Venezuela, ASEAN assess post COVID-19 cooperation - MPPRE

Venezuela, ASEAN assess post COVID-19 cooperation

The 3rd Meeting of the ASEAN Committee in Venezuela was held on Thursday via video conference. There, representatives of the Deputy Secretary-General’s Office of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its members states accredited to Venezuela and the Bolivarian Government ratified their commitment to deepening cooperation between the Asian integration bloc and the South American nation.

The meeting was themed “South-South Cooperation to move forward with post COVID-19 development in peace” and included presentations by the three ASEAN member countries accredited to Venezuela: Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, confirmed Venezuelan’s admiration for ASEAN, its institutions and capacity to deliver.

Arreaza stressed that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela formally requested this year to join the ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, which he praised as an important step to establish closer and more productive relations with this community of nations.

The Venezuelan foreign minister also highlighted that despite the U.S. blockade and siege, Venezuela has made great alliances with countries like China, Russia, Turkey and India.

“We want to enter into a great alliance with the 10 ASEAN member states,” said Arreaza.

In this regard, he said the Caribbean nation relies on a new legal framework, the Anti-Blockade Law, to face the U.S. economic unilateral coercive measures and guarantee discretion of information during the negotiation process, as well as new possibilities for investment, productive alliances and legal security for foreign investments in Venezuela.

Hoang Anh Tuan, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for Political Security, thanked Venezuela for the invitation to participate in the video conference, which serves “as a platform so that both parties can exchange their point of views on possible cooperation areas and deepen ties between ASEAN and Venezuela.

The Asian high-ranking official congratulated Venezuela’s efforts to promote cooperation with the regional bloc, as Venezuela appointed an ambassador to ASEAN and submitted a request to join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

“A lesson we need to learn from this COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of international cooperation in an interconnected world, where no country can deal with this crisis on its own. Addressing the pandemic and its socioeconomic impact demands solidarity and actions at all levels of the international community. That is why ASEAN’s cooperation with its external partners, including Venezuela, has become more relevant and pertinent than ever before,” said Anh Tuan.

In the video conference, Venezuela’s Vice-minister for Asian, the Middle Est and Oceania, Rubén Darío Molina, said that since 2018, with the first meeting, relations with the ASEAN member countries accredited to Venezuela have been strengthened, and now, video conferencing platforms have enabled the participation of representatives from the five branches of the Venezuelan state, as well as governor’s, mayor’s offices and universities.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration, which promotes regional cooperation in different areas, with an emphasis on security, economy, technology and culture. The ASEAN member states include Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.