The first summit between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh was a historic milestone, opening up new opportunities to take the bilateral relationship to a new level for peace, cooperation and mutual development.
In that context, the participation of the high-level Vietnamese delegation, led by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the summit, was highly significant in that it made positive contributions to the overall success of the event, opening up new horizons of cooperation in all fields, thereby continuing to affirm Vietnam’s role and position in the region and the world.
Writing a success story
The GCC is a leading regional organisation in the Middle East, comprising six member countries in the Gulf region (four of which are OPEC members, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as its key members). The organisation has a highly developed economy, with GDP reaching about 2,000 billion USD in 2022.
In general, GCC countries follow a moderate foreign policy and pay attention to cooperation with Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. In this context, the first summit between ASEAN and the GCC since the establishment of relations in 1990 is extremely important, meeting the cooperation and development needs of both sides.
The countries’ leaders agreed to consolidate and perfect cooperation mechanisms while promoting equal and mutually beneficial cooperation to effectively tap into the cooperation potential between the two sides.
They emphasised the need to focus on cooperation in economics, trade, investment, ensuring sustainable supply chains, connectivity, maritime cooperation, energy security, food, the Halal industry, science-technology and innovation, tourism, labour, energy transition and climate change response.
Speaking at this important event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasised, that amid a rapidly changing world, ASEAN and the GCC must adapt more proactively and join hands to free up development resources, produce breakthrough ideas and take specific actions with the highest political determination, so that cooperation between the two regions can make great advances and become a bright spot of regional and global cooperation.
In that spirit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed three main solutions. First, ASEAN and the GCC must work together to create more favourable conditions for the economy, trade and investment to become the main pillars and driving forces for bilateral relations. Second, it is necessary to quickly institutionalise ASEAN-GCC cooperation with regular, substantive and effective cooperation mechanisms in each specific field. Thirdly, it is necessary to strengthen multilateral cooperation to jointly preserve a peaceful and stable environment for development.
With the strength of being very successful regional organisations, the Vietnamese government leader highlighted that ASEAN and the GCC need to support each other to promote their central role and make practical contributions to peace, stability and development in the two regions and the world. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s message and proposals received positive responses from ASEAN and GCC leaders.
As part of his visit to attend the ASEAN-GCC Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the headquarters of the GCC in Riyadh, where he received a warm welcome from GCC Secretary General Jassim Muhammad Al-Budaiwi right from the lobby.
During the meeting with the GCC Secretary General, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the organisation’s role and affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to further advancing mutually beneficial cooperation with the GCC and its member countries. He emphasised that Vietnam is ready to act as a bridge to promote cooperation between ASEAN and the GCC, the two leading dynamic regions of the world, for peace, stability and development in the region and the world.
For his part, Secretary General Jassim Muhammad Al-Budaiwi affirmed that all six GCC countries maintain very good relations with Vietnam and the two sides still have a lot of potential for cooperation. He added that the GCC Secretariat will actively support Vietnam in promoting cooperation with its member countries in areas where both sides have strengths.
He said that the two sides will write a success story as they are both stable, dynamic and peace-loving regions and are making efforts to promote cooperation for the benefit of their people.
The summit was also an opportunity for the Vietnamese government leader to have important meetings with many leaders and heads of state from ASEAN and GCC countries, thereby strengthening bilateral cooperation in various fields.
Realising development vision
On the occasion of attending the ASEAN-GCC Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a wide range of activities to promote bilateral cooperation in various fields, especially economics, trade and investment, which have not lived up to each country’s potential.
The relationship between the two countries is considered to be at a turning point as Saudi Arabia is promoting economic diversification, reducing reliance on oil and gas, and aiming to realise its “Vision 2030” strategy, while Vietnam is also pushing for strong recovery and development.
In his speech to welcome Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Vietnam-Saudi Arabia Business Forum, President of the Federation of Saudi Chambers Hassan Al-Huwaizi expressed his hope that Saudi Arabian goods would penetrate deeper into the Vietnamese market, while Vietnam’s exports to his country will be diversified.
He stated that the two sides have a lot of potential for cooperation, so they need to utilise all their competitive advantages and actively participate in global supply chain initiatives, the economic corridor between India, the Gulf countries and Europe, in which Saudi Arabia acts as the strategic axis and Vietnam acts as the starting point of this strategic corridor.
According to him, many other fields are also opening up new cooperation horizons for the two sides and the forum was an opportunity to contribute to the development of bilateral cooperation, consistent with Saudi Arabia’s strength and global position and Vietnam’s role.
For his part, in front of a large number of Saudi Arabia’s large enterprises, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that the two countries can complement each other’s strengths; expressing his confidence that the cooperative relationship between ASEAN countries and the Gulf countries will be further strengthened.
He said that Vietnam fully supports Saudi Arabia’s development strategy, as well as the advancement of economic, trade and investment cooperation with Saudi Arabia to realise its “Vision 2030”.
This forum was an event of special significance, a good opportunity for the two sides to exchange and propose new solutions and cooperation plans to realise their goals, thereby promoting the elevation of the relationship between the two countries to be commensurate with the role, position and friendship between the two countries.
In an interview with the financial news channel Asharq Economy with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his admiration for Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030”, saying that it has many similarities with Vietnam's vision and that Vietnam has a lot of potential for cooperation and is ready to support Saudi Arabia with specific guidelines and policies after this visit.
The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam values and is ready to further strengthen the friendly relationship and multifaceted cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including cooperation and support in the process of implementing its “Vision 2030” strategy. He suggested that the two sides continue to implement specific cooperation guidelines, policies, programmes and projects after the visit.
During the meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, leaders of Saudi Arabia’s major enterprises and investment funds asked the Vietnamese leader to allow them to enter Vietnam to survey and explore investment opportunities, especially in the petrochemical sector, and expand investment in the fields of steel, oil and gas, renewable energy and infrastructure. They pledged to dedicate large capital sources to finance investment projects in Vietnam.
The Prime Minister affirmed that the Vietnamese government is committed to accompanying and creating favourable conditions for Saudi Arabian companies and investment funds in conducting their business and expanding cooperation with Vietnamese firms.
