PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), July 14 (NNN-Bernama) — ASEAN and the United States (US) must focus on reigniting their economies and reversing the damages brought by COVID-19, said Malaysian Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the ASEAN-US Foreign Ministers\u2019 Meeting held virtually on Wednesday, Hishammuddin said both sides should use this opportunity to further enhance their cooperation where two-way trade between US and ASEAN countries total over US$260 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMalaysia is also one of the top five ASEAN import suppliers for the US at US$39.4 billion. These are huge figures, and it is pertinent for both sides to remain committed in preserving and maintaining our open and connected supply chains,\u201d he said. His speech text was made available to the media by the Foreign Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also present in the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hishammuddin said ASEAN-US must be mindful that millions of lives depend on unimpeded trade to continue between ASEAN and the US and both sides have to work closely together to identify and address any trade disruptions, especially those with ramifications on the flow of necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malaysia also called upon the US to support ASEAN in addressing the issue of mental health which is a crucial focus area in addressing the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hishammuddin noted that Malaysia as country coordinator is working closely with Australia and Brunei Darussalam as ASEAN Chair 2021 on this matter which is a key priority for Brunei\u2019s chairmanship this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have expressed our readiness to co-sponsor a Leaders\u2019 Statement on Mental Health at the 16th East Asia Summit and hope the US can support the issuance of this statement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other areas where ASEAN and the US can further strengthen cooperation include cybersecurity, digital development, and transnational crime, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Malaysia\u2019s Foreign Ministry part in addressing the alarming situation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hishammuddin pointed out that his ministry is looking at four factors; first \u2018circuit breaker\u2019 best practices from other nations to advise the health authorities, second obtaining testing expertise and capabilities to further complement the current testing infrastructure, and third leveraging on its ties with vaccine-producing and\/or exporting partners to increase vaccine supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fourth, equally important is the mutual recognition of vaccination certification to facilitate cross-border travel for our nationals in the future,\u201d Hishammuddin added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), July 14 (NNN-Bernama) — ASEAN and the United States (US) must focus on reigniting their economies and reversing the damages brought by COVID-19, said Malaysian Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein. Speaking at the ASEAN-US Foreign Ministers\u2019 Meeting held virtually on Wednesday, Hishammuddin said both sides should use this opportunity to further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":104325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,288,198,318,316],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}