At 12:40 PM on May 7th (local time), Politburo Member, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and the high-level Vietnamese delegation arrived at Mactan-Cebu International Airport in the coastal city of Cebu, Philippines, to begin their participation in the 48th ASEAN Summit at the invitation of the President of the Republic of the Philippines Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr, ASEAN Chairman in 2026.
Welcoming Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and the high-level Vietnamese delegation at Mactan-Cebu International Airport were Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo Oban Jr; Governor of Cebu province Pamela Baricuatro; Mayor of Lapu Cindi King-Chan; representatives of the ASEAN Summit Organizing Committee.
On the Vietnamese side were Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Lai Thai Binh; Ambassador, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to ASEAN Ton Thi Ngoc Huong; officials and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines.
This is the first foreign working trip of Prime Minister Le Minh Hung in his position as head of the new government and also the first multilateral conference that the Prime Minister directly attended, thereby continuing to demonstrate Vietnam's commitment to proactive, active, and responsible contributions to ASEAN.
The 48th ASEAN Summit focused on exchanging major orientations for ASEAN cooperation in 2026 on ensuring energy security, food security and ASEAN citizen protection; and at the same time continuing the strategy on strengthening intra-regional linkages, enhancing strategic self-reliance and autonomy and ASEAN's central role.
In that spirit, it is expected that at the conference, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung will deliver important speeches, conveying the foreign policy message of the 14th Party Congress and Vietnam's views on ASEAN's priorities, making practical proposals to strengthen the process of building the ASEAN Community, contributing to strengthening ASEAN's resilience and response to fluctuations, especially the impacts of the Middle East situation, and exchanging regional and international issues of common concern.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister will also have contacts and meetings with leaders of countries to consolidate friendly relations, strengthen political trust and promote practical and effective cooperation.
These will also be the first direct meetings of the Prime Minister with leaders of ASEAN countries in their new positions, contributing to creating positive momentum for bilateral relations as well as for the overall cohesion of the community.
