In a recent interview granted to Vietnam News Agency’s correspondents in Malaysia, Dr. Hoo Chiew Ping, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Studies and International Relations under the National University of Malaysia said the year 2020 is greatly disrupted by the global COVID-19 crisis, which was a challenge to Vietnam when it faced the second wave of the pandemic outbreak.

However, the country once again contained the outbreak successfully, and this leads to Vietnam being the only ASEAN member state that achieved GDP growth this year, she noted.

According to her, digitalizing cooperation tracks is another challenge under Vietnam's ASEAN chairmanship, as the region and the world need to maintain regional interactions and cooperation as usual under the hurdles of social traffic disruption.

Given the sustained ASEAN dialogues and meetings, and the fact that several summits with ASEAN dialogue partners are going to be held alongside the ASEAN Summit week, it shows Vietnam's tremendous leadership in fostering intra-ASEAN communication while maintaining the bloc’s partnership with external partners, she said.

“Vietnam is going to set the standards and protocols for convening future ASEAN meetings and dialogues in case of future disruptions, and this is no easy feat,” the scholar said. 

 Sharing Hoo Chiew Ping’s opinion, Dr. Ngeow Chow Bing, Director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya, said given the sudden emergence of the pandemic, Vietnam has done well in its own response, and in preparing the various contingencies facing ASEAN./.

BTA