A delegation of Vietnam headed by Nguyen Hong Cuong, Director of the ASEAN Department under the Foreign Ministry attended the 7th ASEAN-Canada dialogue in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 10 and 11.
The Vietnamese officials and other participants from ASEAN member countries and Canada exchanged views on strategic issues relating to politics, security and economy.
They reviewed the implementation of measures to boost relations between ASEAN and Canada over the past time and discussed measures to further strengthen ties between the two sides and to complete an action plan to conduct the ASEAN-Canada joint declaration on strengthening the ASEAN-Canada partnership in the 2011-2015 period. The plan is expected to be approved by their Foreign Ministers in Hanoi on July 22.
On the sideline of the dialogue, ASEAN and Canadian officials also mentioned on expanding economic and trade relations and speeding up process to sign the Free Trade Agreement soon.
After officially establishing relations in 1977, ASEAN and Canada held their first dialogue in January 2004.
At present, Thailand is the coordinator for dialogue ties between ASEAN and Canada./.