ASEAN Future Forum 2026: Vietnam promotes discussion on regional cooperation orientation
Vietnam's proposal on the discussion content at the forum on the unity and resilience of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is in line with the interests of all ASEAN member states. This was affirmed by Professor Mei Liang, Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (China), in an interview with a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Beijing on the occasion of the ASEAN Future Forum 2026 held in Hanoi on June 9-10.
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung along with his counterparts from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Timor-Leste attended the opening session of the third ASEAN Future Forum.
According to Professor Mei Liang, the plenary session will focus on the resilience and unity of ASEAN, positioning the forum as an open dialogue platform complementing existing official ASEAN mechanisms. The forum emphasizes building a people-centered ASEAN Community, promoting the transition to a new growth model amid global uncertainty, protecting the interests and resilience of all, and ensuring no one is left behind. "Unity and resilience are also the most important reasons for ASEAN's cohesion," the professor emphasized.
On conflict prevention, the Chinese scholar said this is one of the three core themes of this forum. Discussing this topic aims to maintain regional peace and stability and create a safe internal environment for ASEAN's development. From his perspective, relations among ASEAN countries are fundamentally harmonious, and he believes that ASEAN needs to continue promoting dialogue, consultation, and mediation mechanisms to handle differences, thereby maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for the development of ASEAN countries.
Regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and AI technology, Professor Mei Liang also stated that these are the most important areas for ASEAN's future development. He emphasized that keeping up with new technology trends is a requirement for countries in the region. According to him, this is one of the guiding contents of the forum, as issues related to promoting AI technology to enhance regional development while jointly addressing common challenges in governance, ethics, and cybersecurity are being raised and need further discussion.
Referring to Vietnam hosting the ASEAN Future Forum for the third consecutive time—an initiative Vietnam announced at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September 2023—Professor Mei Liang said that this initiative has received positive responses from ASEAN countries and has been successfully organized twice in a row before.
According to him, the ASEAN Future Forum is a Vietnam-led forum. Vietnam's continued hosting of the forum demonstrates Vietnam's goodwill and responsibility in contributing to common discussions and making greater contributions to ASEAN's development.
Vietnam's hosting of the ASEAN Future Forum shows Vietnam's growing influence in ASEAN and its increasingly high stature in the region and internationally. The success of the previous two forums, with the participation of high-ranking officials from ASEAN member states and countries in the region such as China, is evidence of this, showing Vietnam's growing diplomatic influence.
Professor Mei Liang expressed confidence that in the future, the ASEAN Future Forum will play an increasingly important role in ASEAN affairs and become a key platform for ASEAN's development.
