Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(Ha Noi, July 25, 2001)

Your Royal Highness,
Distinguished Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government and people of Viet Nam, once again I would like to warmly welcome you to Ha Noi for the 8th ASEAN Regional Forum. I have the great honour to chair this important Meeting and believe that with your active contributions, our Meeting will be crowned with a fine success.

We are glad to note that for the past year, the ARF process has continued to be expanded and begun its in-depth development with encouraging results, thus enabling the Forum to move ahead with important steps. The ISG on CBMs has been working actively and efficiently. Many new CBMs have been introduced and implemented, thus helping enhance dialogues, mutual understanding and trust among members. In addition to traditional security matters, deliberations on trans-national crimes within the framework of the ARF Expert Groups have produced many feasible recommendations and measures aimed at promoting concerted efforts in overcoming emerging severe risks and challenges. The Forum has also been very active in implementing overlapping measures between Confidence Building Measures and Preventive Diplomacy, especially with regard to the Enhanced Role of the ARF Chair and the Terms of Reference for Register of the Experts/Eminent Persons. The 2nd volume of the Annual Security Outlook (ASO) has been published. Participating countries' voluntary exchange of views regarding issues that may affect regional security has been maintained and further promoted. Concrete results have come out of the discussion within the ARF on the Paper on the Enhanced Role of the ARF Chair, the Terms of Reference for the Experts/Eminent Persons Register, and the Paper on Concepts and Principles of Preventive Diplomacy. Hopefully, these three documents will be adopted during the Forum.
These results show that for the past year, the ARF has achieved important progress, continued to play an active role and contributed to the consolidation of peace and stability in the region. That is also an important foundation to ensure that the ARF will continue to develop along the agreed direction and pace for higher efficiency in the future.

Dear Colleagues,

On the whole, peace and stability have, for the past year, been maintained in the Asia-Pacific region. However, there are still hidden risks and challenges resulting from complex and rapid developments in the world situation. Besides lingering issues left over by history, new issues have emerged in the context of globalisation such as the widening development gap, trans-national crime especially drug traffic; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and the need to ensure the recovery and sustained and equitable development of regional economies, especially small and medium-sized economies. Without timely and proper solutions, it may pose a serious danger to stability and development of each country as well as to peace and security in the region.

To overcome these challenges our region need to step up concerted efforts. As the only forum of dialogues and cooperation on regional political security issues, the ARF will need not only to continue enhancing mutual trust and confidence among regional countries but also have an important role to play in overcoming these challenges. By so doing, the ARF will be able to promote its role in maintaining peace, security and fostering development in the region and keep itself on the right track in the future.
In such a context, as the first Meeting in the new millennium, this 8th ARF Meeting will be of significance with the active participation of and valuable contributions from the colleagues. Besides exchanging views on the regional security situation and assessing the progress of the ARF process, our Meeting needs to outline the major orientations for regional security cooperation, especially within the ARF framework, not only for a couple of years ahead but also for the first decade of the 21st century so as to keep the ARF process on the right track and make concrete contributions to peace and security in the region.
With this brief statement, I would like to declare open the 8th ARF Meeting. Our Meeting will proceed according to what we have agreed.

Thank you very much.