Since its establishment in 1999, the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Co-operation has helped countries in the two regions get closer to each other, Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem has said.
Stressing the challenges that forum members were currently facing, including the impacts of the financial crisis, climate change, the food crisis, epidemics and poverty, Khiem called on the forum’s members to continue working together to overcome them.
Addressing the fourth FEALAC Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tokyo on Saturday, Khiem said FEALAC should ensure its budget for the implementation of co-operative programmes and projects.
East Asia and Latin America were dynamic regions with co-operation demands and potential, he said. This would serve as the foundation for boosting FEALAC development, making the forum effective and practical to meet the desires and interests of all member countries, Khiem added.
As a founding member of the forum, Viet Nam would continue boosting co-operation between the two regions, and was willing to share development experience and co-operate with member countries in sectors of mutual concern, Khiem said.
The fourth FEALAC FMM wrapped up yesterday after adopting the Tokyo Declaration.
The declaration called for strengthened activities and interactive relations through FEALAC frameworks to tap the great potential between the two regions to cope with present and future challenges.
It also called for continued international efforts to help earthquake victims in Haiti and to help the country overcome the consequences of the natural disaster, which hit the Caribbean nation on January 12.
The meeting discussed issues relating to the environment, climate change and sustainable development, the global economic-financial crisis, clean energy development, information technology usage, disease prevention and future visions for FEALAC development.
Participants also spoke with representatives of World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank about the possibility of assistance of international financial institutions to the inter-regional co-operation.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Khiem received Argentinean Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, during which he asked the Latin American country to soon recognise Viet Nam as a market economy.
Viet Nam and Argentina had recently witnessed developments in bilateral co-operation, especially in trade and economy, Khiem said.
He also welcomed Argentina’s IMPSA group’s investment of $2 million for wind power production in Viet Nam.
Minister Taiana said the two countries should continue to increase bilateral co-operation through visits by leaders of both countries, expressing his hope that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung would visit Argentina this year.
The two-day FEALAC FMM, which were attended by foreign ministers and senior officials from 34 member countries, including 16 from East Asia and 18 from Latin-America, approved reports and made decisions on the forum’s activities in accordance with proposals at the 9th and 10th Senior Officials Meetings in Argentina in April 2009 and in Japan on January 14-15.
The meeting elected Indonesia and Argentina as regional coordinators until the fifth FEALAC FMM scheduled for late 2011.
