On the morning of October 9, the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and related Summits were solemnly opened at the National Convention Center, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic, with the participation of Leaders of ASEAN countries, Timor-Leste and many representatives of partners, international and regional organizations. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh led the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation to attend the opening ceremony.

Welcoming the ASEAN Leaders and delegates to Vientiane to attend the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and related meetings, Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone expressed his country's pride in assuming the role of ASEAN Chair for the third time. With the theme of cooperation in 2024 " ASEAN: Promoting Connectivity and Resilience", Laos has worked with ASEAN countries to implement 9 priorities, achieving many positive results in all 3 pillars, especially in building strategies to implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045. Faced with complex and unpredictable changes, ASEAN as well as other regions in the world face many challenges such as conflicts, economic instability, financial risks, climate change, and natural disasters.

In that context, ASEAN needs to maintain its determination, enhance its autonomy, and continue to strengthen cooperation to promptly seize opportunities and effectively respond to challenges. Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone believes that with the spirit of cooperation, trust and mutual support among member countries, ASEAN will continue to achieve new successes. This ASEAN Summit is an opportunity for all countries to evaluate the results of building the Community and set out development and cooperation orientations, continue to strengthen relations with partners, consolidate the foundation for the sustainable development of the ASEAN Community, and contribute to the goal of peace, security and stability.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Lao General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith expressed his appreciation for the valuable assistance and support from ASEAN family members, friendly countries and partners for Laos during its three tenures as ASEAN Chair since joining ASEAN in 1997.

Throughout its development, ASEAN, a regional organization with inherent diversity, has overcome many challenges, marking its development with the formation of the Community in 2015. ASEAN is now home to more than 700 million people, the 3rd largest economy in Asia and the 5th largest in the world, forecast to rise to the 4th position in the world by 2030.

ASEAN’s achievements over the past decades have brought great benefits to the people, realized the common aspirations and wishes of the region, and strengthened solidarity and unity in diversity. These results are also a testament to the success of the ASEAN Way, promoting the region’s unique identity and characteristics to successfully realize the goals of peace, stability and sustainable socio-economic development.

In the context of the regional and international environment undergoing rapid and complex changes with many new challenges, ASEAN must continue to carry out its mission, strive for peace, stability and sustainable development, and strongly commit to promoting multilateralism in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit. ASEAN needs to promote cooperation according to the ASEAN Way, promote self-reliance, consolidate solidarity, unity and centrality in relations with partners.

The Lao President also emphasized that with Timor-Leste becoming a full member in the near future, ASEAN will bring together all Southeast Asian countries, strongly affirming the diversity and great potential of the region, while opening up new cooperation opportunities with partners.

Affirming that ASEAN is an important pillar in Laos' foreign policy of "peace, independence, friendship and cooperation", President Thongloun Sisoulith stressed that Laos fulfills its commitments and obligations with a high sense of responsibility for the common interests of ASEAN. With the theme “ASEAN: Promoting Connectivity and Resilience” , the priorities and initiatives during Laos’s Chairmanship year contribute to the common goal of building a more connected and resilient ASEAN Community. This also reflects the desire and efforts to transform Laos from a landlocked country into a hub of regional and international connectivity.

* Immediately after the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste attended the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit, discussing cooperation contents within ASEAN and between ASEAN and its partners.

According to the ASEAN Secretary-General's Report, ASEAN cooperation over the past year continued to make many important strides, despite difficulties and challenges both within and outside the region. The 2025 Community Building Master Plans entered the final stage of implementation, recording a high implementation rate in all three pillars, especially the political-security sector reaching 99.6%. ASEAN maintained positive growth momentum, continuing to be an attractive investment destination with a total foreign direct investment of 230 billion USD in 2023, second only to the United States. Frameworks such as the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, the Blue Economy Framework, the Circular Economy Framework, etc. are the basis for ASEAN to quickly catch up with new development trends, creating momentum for quality and sustainable growth in the future.

The countries congratulated the Lao Chairman on the positive results achieved in 2024 under the theme “ASEAN: Promoting Connectivity and Resilience”, highly appreciating the initiatives and priorities implemented across all three pillars of the Community. Notably, the development of strategies to implement the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, cooperation to enhance supply chain connectivity, restructuring strategies to narrow the development gap, enhancing healthcare resilience, climate resilience, enhancing the role and participation of women and children, etc. The countries agreed on the need to further concretize and deepen the content of connectivity and resilience in the cooperation strategies for the new period, enhancing ASEAN's adaptability to the current profound and complex movements.

Welcoming new developments in cooperation between ASEAN and its partners, the countries agreed on the need to maintain ASEAN's strategic balance in implementing foreign relations, continue to ask partners to respect ASEAN's central role, and work with ASEAN to promote the values ​​of dialogue, cooperation and trust, uphold the rule of law, and contribute constructively and responsibly to peace, security and stability.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his gratitude for the sharing and support of ASEAN countries in overcoming the consequences of super typhoon Yagi in countries, including Vietnam. The Prime Minister emphasized that solidarity and mutual love, “one for all, all for one” continue to be the core values ​​and source of strength of ASEAN.

In the context of an increasingly volatile world, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commented that overall there is peace, but locally there is war; overall there is reconciliation, but locally there is tension; overall there is stability, but locally there is conflict. In such a challenging situation, ASEAN continues to be a bright spot in the global economy, a bridge of dialogue and cooperation, and the focal point of integration and linkage processes in the region. Frameworks on digital economy, blue economy, circular economy, etc. are gradually shaping new cooperation content in the region.

Expressing his agreement with the ASEAN 2024 theme of “Promoting Connectivity and Resilience”, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that more than ever, ASEAN needs to take self-reliance as the foundation to reach new heights, take connectivity as the focus to make breakthroughs, and take innovation as the driving force to pioneer and lead.

On that basis, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shared important orientations for ASEAN in the coming time.

Firstly , self-reliance and strategic autonomy are the foundation for ASEAN to stand firm in the face of all fluctuations and overcome all challenges. Accordingly, ASEAN needs to strengthen solidarity and unity in diversity, adhere to standards of conduct and persist in ASEAN's principled stance on international and regional issues. ASEAN needs to enhance its self-reliance capacity, promote endogenous resources to maintain internal strategic stability and respond promptly to external risks. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his belief that Timor Leste's early membership will add more self-reliance to ASEAN and the region.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also emphasized that ASEAN needs to maintain its central, independent, balanced role and behave principledly in implementing foreign relations, expanding and diversifying relations with partners on the basis of ensuring effectiveness, substance and mutual benefit.

Second , promoting internal connectivity combined with external connectivity, public-private connectivity, multi-sectoral connectivity, focusing on infrastructure, institutional and human connectivity is a strategic breakthrough for ASEAN. Accordingly, ASEAN needs to promote investment in high-quality infrastructure projects, especially “hard” and “soft” strategic infrastructure, and encourage the participation of third parties and external partners. ASEAN needs to promote institutional harmonization, facilitate trade in goods, services, and investment. ASEAN needs to promote people-to-people connectivity, people-to-people exchanges, and further facilitate the travel of citizens, businessmen, and workers.

Third , innovation is the main driving force and driving force for ASEAN to catch up, progress together and surpass the region and the world. Accordingly, ASEAN needs to promote cooperation in developing an innovation ecosystem, developing regional digital cooperation frameworks, along with developing governance criteria for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. ASEAN needs to promote the human factor as the center, subject, goal, resource and driving force of innovation, and pay attention to enhancing cooperation in education and training high-quality human resources to meet the requirements of the new era.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that ASEAN is preparing for a new development phase with new thinking, new vision, new motivation and new attitude. Wishing to contribute more to regional cooperation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Vietnam will continue to host the ASEAN Future Forum in 2025 and hopes that countries will continue to pay attention and support Vietnam in successfully organizing this event.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam supports and closely coordinates with Malaysia in its role as ASEAN Chair in 2025 to continue achieving new results, marking 10 years of the formation of the ASEAN Community.