Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong  (R) shakes hands with visiting Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah

The statement says the two countries’ leaders expressed pleasure over the upgrade of their relationship to comprehensive partnership, which shows both sides’ commitments to strengthening their precious cooperation for the interests of the two peoples. The leaders said the newly-established comprehensive partnership will create momentum for multi-faceted cooperation in politics, defense, security, trade, investment, energy, education, and people-to-people exchanges, among others.

According to the joint statement, the Vietnamese and Brunei leaders pledged to maintain an open, inclusive, and law-based multilateral trade system and finalize the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement this year. They agreed on balanced and sustainable bilateral trade.

The joint statement reiterates that both sides concurred with each other to the need to strengthen marine cooperation, including aquaculture, share information on law enforcement at sea, and jointly address marine security challenges to ensure freedom and safety of navigation. The leaders agreed to work closely with each other in settling regional and global issues, including transnational crimes, climate change adaptation, natural disaster management, sustainable development, and food-water sources-energy security.

The Vietnamese and Brunei leaders committed to forge closer cooperation in sports, culture, tourism, and labor.