"You are just across the water from us and for too long we have been distant strangers," Brunei Foreign Minister Mohamed Bolkiah said during a simple ceremony welcoming Vietnam as the seventh ASEAN member.
With counterparts from the six other member-nations looking on, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam formalized the admission by signing the ASEAN declaration.
"As a full member of ASEAN, Vietnam undertakes to fulfill all obligations and responsibilities of a member country according to the targets, objectives, principles and regulations," Cam told the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, the other ASEAN members.
As the poorest member of ASEAN, Vietnam hopes to gain from the experience of the other members, which are among the world's fastest-growing economies. ASEAN also expects to benefit by gaining a member nation with 72 million people, low-cost labor and abundant natural resources being harnessed by economic reforms and liberalization despite a socialist government.
Vietnam's addition to the group is of strategic importance to other members in dealing with a common adversary, China, which has disputes with several members-countries over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and mineral resources.
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