Hanoi (VNA)ℱ – VietnameseAmbassador to Switzerland Le Linh Lan assumed the Chairmanship ofthe ASEAN Committee in Bern (ACB) during an online meeting in Bern on July 2,the first of the committee since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Switzerland on February 25.

Speaking at the event,Ambassador Lan presented scheduled activities during Vietnam’s tenure as ACBChair for the second half of this year, and wished to receive further support from the committee members in the time ahead amidthe pandemic. The MalaysianAmbassador presented a report on ACB’s activities under Malaysia’schairmanship in the first half of this year in the context of the pandemic hindering the implementation of initial plans, saying that the committee worked to maintain several activities during the pandemic, including holding virtualmeetings of the working group and the committee in May. Ambassadors of ASEANmember states shared information about Switzerland andcountries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as efforts to push for the establishment of the ASEAN – SwissParliamentary Friendship Group at the Federal Parliament during the 2019-2023tenure. They thanked SwissForeign Minister Ignazio Cassis for his letter to the ACB, in which the minister called for international cooperation in the fight againstCOVID-19 and economic recovery. Cassis expressed Switzerland’sappreciation for its partnership with ASEAN and its member countries, especially inits capacity as Sectoral Dialogue Partner of ASEAN. Ambassador Lan took the occasion to report about Vietnam’sefforts to curb the pandemic, highlighting the Vietnamese Government’sdetermination and drastic measures in epidemic prevention and control. She said Vietnam has maintained dialogues with nations via teleconferences and presented medical suppliesand face masks to ASEAN and international friends, as well as successfully heldthe online Special ASEAN Summit and ASEAN 3 Summit. The diplomat noted that as ASEAN Chair in 2020,Vietnam has worked to promote ASEAN’s drastic and timely measures in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, such as establishing theASEAN Fund for COVID-19 Response and the regional emergency medical supplies warehouse,building a process to combat the pandemic, and embarking on socio-economicrecovery plans. She stressed that the 36th ASEAN Summit, the first of its kind held online underthe chair of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has highlightedthe spirit of solidarity, cooperation, economic integration, while reaffirming theimportance of maintaining an open, transparent and rules-based region withASEAN playing a central role. On regional and global issues, theevent spotlighted the significance of maintaining and promoting peace,stability, security, maritime and aviation safety and freedom in the East Sea.It called for strengthening trust building, exercising self-restraint and preventingactions that could complicate the issue and settling disputes in line withinternational law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS)./.