Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Comrades and Compatriots, 

On December 31st, 2010, Việt Nam formally concludes its one-year rotational Chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). We are proud and glad that Việt Nam has successfully fulfilled this role with the set goals attained, leaving an impressive Vietnamese imprint on the substantive aspect as well as the management and organisation of ASEAN’s events throughout the year. The success of the ASEAN Chairmanship year has been reflected in the important outcomes of long-lasting significance that serve both the interests of ASEAN and the region in general and Việt Nam in particular.

To ASEAN, the determination and joint efforts of Member Countries to pursue the theme of "Towards an ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action" have brought about substantive changes, thus, pushing an important step forward in concretising the goal of building an ASEAN Community by 2015. ASEAN integration has turned more substantive and practical with remarkable progresses recorded in the implementation of the ASEAN Charter and the realisation of the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community in all three pillars, i.e the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Social-Cultural Community, as well as in carrying out other important plans and programs, in particular, on ASEAN Connectivity.

ASEAN’s external relations and its centrality in the region continue to be  strengthened and elevated, which have been clearly manifested in the new and meaningful developments in ASEAN-driven regional cooperation frameworks such as the ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) or the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+). The Association has also made important contributions to other international fora like APEC, ASEM, G20 and the UN. External partners are attaching increasing importance to their relations with ASEAN, expressing their active support to ASEAN’s centrality in the region, while promoting multi-faceted cooperation with ASEAN through stronger commitments to support ASEAN in various forms, including financial assistance.