Vietnam hands over Chairmanship of ASEAN Committee in Caracas to Indonesia

Vietnamese Ambassador to Venezuela Le Viet Duyen joins a webinar from Caracas. (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela on February 3 held a ceremony to hand over the Chairmanship of the ASEAN Committee in Caracas (ACC) to Indonesian Ambassador Imam Edy Mulyono.

The event also saw the presence of Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Malaysia Mohd Raizul Zulkiffli.

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyen reviewed outstanding activities of ASEAN and ACC over the last year and briefed about the success of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

The embassies of Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, the only three embassies of ASEAN member states in Venezuela, have shown solidarity, shared information and enthusiastically engaged in joint activities in Caracas, Duyen said.

In the face of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, the ACC, under Vietnam’s chairmanship, organised a number of meaningful events, strengthened ASEAN unity, and heightened ASEAN position in Venezuela in 2020, he noted, citing the hosting of ASEAN Family Day, donation of facemasks to the Foreign Ministry of Venezuela to aid local COVID-19 response, floral tribute paying to Simón Bolivar, a leader in Latin America’s independence movement, at the National Pantheon of Venezuela - a final resting place of national heroes, and the joining of the 3rd ASEAN Day hosted by Venezuela as examples.

Indonesian Ambassador Mulyono, for his part, expressed his honour to take over the ACC Chairmanship. He vowed to bolster solidarity among the ASEAN embassies in Caracas and tighten relations between ASEAN and Venezuela through more activities in his term.

On this occasion, the ACC discussed and adopted its agenda for 2021 focusing on promoting ASEAN cultures in the time of COVID-19. A series of events are scheduled, including cultural, cuisine and sports exchanges, ASEAN Family Day, a book fair and a ASEAN film week./.