The Vietnamese National Assembly stands side by side with AIPA, turning the ASEAN vision into reality

According to a special correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency, with the spirit of "active participation, substantial contribution, outstanding mark", the working trip of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to attend the 46th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46) and official visit to Malaysia, from September 16-20, was very successful, leaving a mark in all aspects.

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man attends the first plenary session of the 46th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-46). Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Promoting the role of parliamentary diplomacy

The 46th AIPA General Assembly takes place at a very meaningful time, when Vietnam celebrates 30 years of joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and participating in AIPA (1995-2025), especially in the context that ASEAN is preparing to enter a new phase in the process of building the Community with Vision 2045.

Attending this important event, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation proposed many initiatives to continue promoting the role and special strengths of parliamentary diplomacy in realizing the ASEAN Community Vision 2045. National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man emphasized that accompanying ASEAN in every stage of development, AIPA has made important contributions, supporting governments to implement regional cooperation agreements and commitments, creating a favorable legal environment and ensuring that the people's voices are reflected in ASEAN's decisions.

In the context of the rapidly and complicated developments in the world and the region, the National Assembly Chairman proposed three important priority areas that AIPA should focus on in the coming time. Accordingly, AIPA needs to promote its role in promoting regional cooperation more effectively; including strengthening its role as a bridge, encouraging and facilitating social classes and subjects to participate and actively contribute to the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045; taking the lead in building institutions and policies to help regional commitments and agreements be implemented in practice, especially in science and technology development, innovation, digital transformation, etc. At the same time, AIPA needs to actively participate in consolidating a more solid social foundation for regional cooperation; actively expanding and deepening foreign relations.

Since becoming a member of AIPA over the past 30 years, the Vietnamese National Assembly has always been an active, proactive and responsible member, ready to accompany AIPA to build a strong and prosperous ASEAN. In that spirit, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man affirmed that the Vietnamese National Assembly will continue to stand side by side with AIPA to turn ASEAN's vision and aspirations into reality, building an inclusive, sustainable, self-reliant, creative, dynamic and truly people-centered development community.

At AIPA-46, the Vietnamese delegation actively participated, proactively proposed and co-sponsored many initiatives. The AIPA-46 General Assembly adopted resolutions proposed and co-sponsored by Vietnam to promote cooperation in priority areas such as digital economy and digital transformation, cyber security, enhancing intra-bloc trade, improving the effectiveness of cooperation with partners, and promoting the role of parliamentary diplomacy in maintaining peace and stability in the region. In particular, the group of resolutions adopted, including resolutions on enhancing the role of youth in digital transformation, on developing digital human resources, on effectively exploiting the digital economy, on combating cybercrime, etc., helped strengthen the "digital ecosystem", in line with ASEAN's common development requirements and linked to Vietnam's current priorities.

Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Don Tuan Phong said that the resolutions proposed by the Vietnamese delegation were highly appreciated by member parliaments, including a number of resolutions co-sponsored by other countries. Deputy Chairman Don Tuan Phong expressed his hope that these resolutions will be the basis for parliaments to strengthen cooperation in all areas: economy, trade, investment, digital economy, green economy, expanding to new areas of cooperation, as well as coordinating to respond to climate change and address social, political and security issues. These will be practical contributions to strengthening the cohesion and enhancing the role of AIPA in the region and the world.

Strengthening political trust, facilitating economic cooperation

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man holds talks with Malaysian Senate President Dato' Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Along with attending the 46th AIPA General Assembly, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man made his first official visit to Malaysia as head of the Vietnamese legislature.

During the visit, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man met with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and held talks with Speaker of the House of Representatives Tan Sri Dato' Johari bin Abdul and President of the Senate Dato' Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah.

In an atmosphere of sincerity and trust, the leaders of the two countries agreed that it is necessary to continue to strengthen political trust, promptly implement the Action Program for the period 2025 - 2030 to deploy the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; further facilitate economic, trade and investment cooperation to soon achieve the trade turnover target of 18 billion USD in a more balanced direction, focusing on potential areas such as Halal, renewable energy, green energy, digital transformation, agriculture, tourism and education and training.

The two sides agreed to promote cooperation on the parliamentary channel through increasing exchanges of high-level delegations, committee-level delegations, and exchanges between female and young parliamentarians; sharing information and experience in building and perfecting appropriate legal frameworks, creating favorable conditions for implementing new contents/areas of cooperation within the framework of the newly established Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The two sides will promote cooperation in monitoring the effective implementation of international treaties and cooperation agreements signed between the two governments.

In an interview with Vietnamese press agencies, President of the Malaysian Senate Dato' Awang Bemee Awang Ali Basah stated that the working trip to attend the 46th AIPA General Assembly and the official visit to Malaysia by National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man not only contributed to consolidating and enhancing the cooperative relationship between the two sides, but also created conditions for exchanging and discussing many practical issues that are arising.

The President of the Malaysian Senate stressed that Vietnam plays an important role, not only in terms of strategic vision but also as a regional governance center. The President of the Malaysian Senate said that during the visit, the two sides discussed many issues. In the current challenging world political context, strengthening cooperation is a key factor in resolving emerging issues. Therefore, bilateral relations will increasingly develop, towards coordinating to resolve common issues.

The Malaysian Senate President also stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation within ASEAN - a large region with about 700 million people - to build ASEAN into a cohesive, united and sustainably developed community; and said that through the meetings, Vietnam and Malaysia agreed on sharing experiences and cooperating more closely to make ASEAN a deeply connected region, playing an active role in international cooperation and multilateral forums.

Deputy Foreign Minister Le Anh Tuan assessed that the visit of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to Malaysia has deepened political relations and made cooperation between the two countries more comprehensive, especially in the context of Malaysia assuming the role of ASEAN Chair 2025. Vietnam wishes to work with Malaysia and ASEAN countries to build a "Sustainable and Inclusive" ASEAN Community, united, strong, and consolidate ASEAN's central role in the regional structure.

With the positive results of the visit, Deputy Minister Le Anh Tuan said that in the coming time, the two countries' agencies need to continue to promote high-level delegation exchanges and on all channels of the Party, Government, State, National Assembly, and people-to-people exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and trust; promote and improve the effectiveness of existing cooperation mechanisms.

Regarding economic cooperation, Vietnamese ministries, departments, sectors, localities and enterprises proactively work with Malaysian partners to promote and support the participation of enterprises to expand trade and investment relations. In the social and cultural fields, the two countries strengthen people-to-people exchanges, expand educational cooperation programs, vocational training, especially high-quality human resources, further promote tourism, and provide more scholarships for Vietnamese students to study in Malaysia.

The results of the working trip of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man have opened up opportunities to promote and deepen cooperation between Vietnam and Malaysia in many fields, commensurate with the stature of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; at the same time, affirming the proactive and active role of the Vietnamese National Assembly at AIPA, contributing to building a cohesive, inclusive and sustainable ASEAN.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/quoc-hoi-viet-nam-sat-canh-voi-aipa-bien-tam-nhin-asean-thanh-hien-thuc-20250920213147449.htm