On the morning of May 26, at the Kuala Lumpur National Convention Center, Malaysia, Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh led a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to attend the plenary session of the 46th ASEAN Summit.
Leaders of countries supported the cooperation theme "Empowerment and Sustainability", reflecting the urgent need to promote equitable, self-reliant, united development and jointly respond to common challenges such as climate change, energy security, transnational crime, and natural disasters. Countries affirmed ASEAN as a bright spot for global growth with an increase of 4.8% in 2024 and forecasted 4.7% in 2025, with internal cooperation and with partners continuously expanding.
ASEAN leaders unanimously adopted the document ASEAN 2045: Our common future, which includes the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and strategies on politics - security, economy, culture - society and connectivity.
Leaders of ASEAN countries agreed to admit Timor-Leste as the 11th member of ASEAN at the 47th ASEAN Summit in October 2025 and assigned Ministers and senior officials to negotiate joining documents.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his confidence that as ASEAN Chair, Malaysia will "steer" ASEAN to overcome difficulties and challenges. The Prime Minister said that the world is witnessing many unpredictable and uncertain fluctuations, leading to political polarization, economic division, institutional decentralization and development differentiation.
In that context, ASEAN needs to strongly promote the "five more": More solidarity to create collective strength; More self-reliance to master fate; More proactiveness to shape the game; More coverage to be a common home and more sustainability for future generations. The Prime Minister highly agreed with the ASEAN document 2045 and proposed 3 key cooperation focuses in the coming time.
First, ASEAN reshapes the development thinking towards inclusive, innovative and sustainable. The Prime Minister proposed to study and include sustainability as a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of implementing cooperation strategies, based on three pillars: green economy, inclusive society and smart governance. At the same time, it is necessary to mobilize public and private resources to promote digital transformation, science and technology and develop regional initiatives, inspiring partners to participate.
Second, ASEAN needs to expand its connections beyond the region, diversify products, markets and supply chains. The Prime Minister welcomed the replication of the ASEAN-GCC and ASEAN-GCC-China Summit models, expanding cooperation with the South American Common Market and the Pacific Alliance; and suggested that ASEAN promote a collective voice, support free, fair, inclusive trade and promote multilateralism. Timor-Leste's official membership will contribute to enhancing ASEAN's self-reliance, coverage and sustainability.
Third, ASEAN should maintain its central role and enhance regional self-reliance capacity. The Prime Minister emphasized that success depends on the ability to ensure an independent and autonomous strategic space in implementing policy making. In the face of the increase in cross-national crime, the Prime Minister announced Vietnam's proposal to develop an ASEAN Declaration on improving the effectiveness of cooperation in tracking and arresting wanted criminals.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that with common confidence and vision, ASEAN will overcome all fluctuations and continue to develop strongly. Vietnam is committed to being a responsible, active and proactive member, working with ASEAN to create a Community that is more united, more self-reliant, more proactive, more inclusive and more sustainable.
