(VOVworld) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is on a state visit to Vietnam. During talks on Wednesday, President Truong Tan Sang said Vietnam wants to develop its traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Belarus. He called on both countries to maintain the exchange of visits and contacts and political consultations between the two foreign ministries to increase political trust and mutual understanding.

President Sang said the two countries should increase the role of their inter-government committee, ratify the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement, and promote trade and investment. He called for increased cooperation in industry which is Belarus’s potential and chemicals, engineering, automobile assembly, and agriculture.

President Sang asked Belarus to increase scholarships for Vietnamese military servicemen, particularly in air defense, radar, and information technology. He said Vietnam wants to boost cooperation with Belarus in education, culture, tourism, sports, science, and technology. He thanked Belarus for supporting the Vietnamese community and said he hopes the community will contribute to friendship between the two countries.

President Lukashenko said Vietnam is a priority country in Belarus’s foreign policy in Southeast Asia and Belarus wants to develop bilateral ties to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. He said the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union FTA will create new cooperation opportunities between the two countries and between the two regions. He said that both countries should quickly ratify the FTA to help their businesses learn about each other’s market. Belarus wants to establish a coffee and tea processing joint venture in either Vietnam or Belarus and is ready to train Vietnamese agriculture experts.

The two leaders shared the same view on a number of issues including human rights at the United Nations. They agreed to support each other and praised cooperation on human rights, anti-oppression, and anti-politicization of human rights. Belarus supports Vietnam’s bid for membership at the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 term and maintenance of principles of the Non-aligned Movement of unity, independence, and non-interference from outside forces. President Lukashenko said he supports the principle of Vietnam and ASEAN of peacefully settling disputes in the East Sea without using force in line with international law including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He called for full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea toward adopting a Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the talks, president Truong Tan Sang said: “We’ve discussed measures to increase two-way trade, ensure trade balance, and increase investment between the two countries. We agreed to increase acvities of the inter-government committee, support imports-exports, promote trade and investment, and expand cooperation in industry. We agreed on the importance of the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union FTA and to quickly ratify it, which will create breakthroughs in economic and trade cooperation between the two countries in the future.”

The two presidents witnessed the signing of a number of cooperative agreements in national defense, economics, science, education, culture, tourism, vocational training, and between localities. These agreements included a cooperative program between Vietnam and Belarus during the 2016-2018 period.