On 17 November 2020, the 10th Joint Council Meeting of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) was held online. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Tran Duc Binh, Ambassador of Viet Nam to ASEAN, on behalf of the rotating chair of ASEAN and Mr. Deng Xijun, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN. Mr. Chen Dehai, ACC Secretary-General, heads of all divisions of ACC, Ms. Dong Shuhui, Counsellor of Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and representatives of ASEAN Member States (AMS) and ASEAN Secretariat attended the meeting.
Ambassador Tran Duc Binh said that ASEAN-China relations have maintained strong momentum in 2020. The 23rd ASEAN-China Summit held recently adopted the Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity (2021-2025), released the Initiative on Building ASEAN-China Partnership on Digital Economy, and designated 2021 as the ASEAN-China Year of Sustainable Development Cooperation, charting the course for future development of ASEAN-China relations. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic this year, ACC has remained committed to promoting ASEAN-China cooperation in all fields, making important contributions to regional prosperity and stability. It is believed that with the continuous development of ASEAN-China relations, ACC would surely play an even more important role.
Ambassador Deng Xijun said that this year, China-ASEAN relations have withstood the test of the pandemic and achieved further development. The leaders of China and AMS have maintained frequent exchanges. In-depth cooperation was conducted in fighting the pandemic. The economic and trade cooperation has achieved a trend-bucking surge of growth. Last week, the 23rd ASEAN-China Summit was successfully held, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed, injecting new impetus into China-ASEAN relations. It is hoped that ACC, as an important bridge, bond and platform for friendly exchanges and practical cooperation between China and ASEAN, will continue to give full play to its unique advantages, strengthen dialogue and cooperation with its partners, and earnestly implement the consensus and outcomes of the summit, so as to make greater contributions to uplifting the level of ASEAN-China cooperation.
As members of the ACC Joint Council, representatives of AMS and China highly commended ACC’s efforts over the past year in overcoming the difficulties brought by the pandemic, and organising rich and colorful activities to celebrate the ASEAN-China Year of Digital Economy Cooperation, which demonstrated ACC’s positive role and strengthened its function as an information centre. Substantial results have been yielded, giving a boost to the ASEAN-China exchanges and cooperation across the board. It is hoped that in 2021, ACC will fully implement the Plan of Action, promote the synergy between BRI and MPAC 2025 in the context of the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relationship and the 10th anniversary of ACC under the main theme of the year and in key areas of cooperation, such as public health, economy and trade, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and people-to-people exchanges, so as to push for new progress in ASEAN-China relations.
Secretary-General Chen Dehai thanked members of the Joint Council for their strong support to ACC and himself. He said that in 2021, which is of vital importance to ASEAN-China relations, ACC will closely follow the latest situation of pandemic containment and economic recovery, and take ASEAN-China Year of Sustainable Development Cooperation as an opportunity to earnestly implement the important consensus between leaders of both sides as well as the above-mentioned Plan of Action. The ACC Secretariat will translate the Joint Council decisions into concrete actions, work together with its partners to do a good job in organising activities in different fields, enhance the level of information service and further deepen practical cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, so as to make new contributions to the development of ASEAN-China strategic partnership.
The JC members listened to the report of the 2020 Joint Executive Board of ACC, deliberated on and adopted the Summary Record of the 9th Joint Council Meeting, the Annual Report of 2020, the Work Programme and Budget of Operational Expenditure of 2021.The arrangements of the 11th Joint Council Meeting and other related matters were also discussed.
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