President Vo Van Thuong and President Sergio Mattarella at the welcoming ceremony. Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA

Afterwards, President Mattarella and his daughter invited President Thuong and his wife to a photo session and meet official members of the two countries. It was followed by high-level talks between the two presidents and their delegations.

At the talks, the two leaders discussed directions to strengthen the Vietnam-Italy strategic partnership, as well as regional and global issues of mutual concern.

The two sides agreed to step up the exchange of delegations at all levels and continue to effectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms.

The Italian President agreed with the Vietnamese side's proposal that the both countries continue effectively implementing the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The Italian Parliament will soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and support the European Commission’s prompt removal of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing yellow card for seafood exports from Vietnam, they said.

President Vo Van Thuong and President Sergio Mattarella hold talks after the welcoming ceremony. Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA

The two leaders agreed to strengthen people-to-people exchanges through cooperation in education-training, culture-art, tourism, and cooperation between localities and universities.

President Thuong suggested that the Italian government continue to pay attention to and create favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community to successfully integrate into the host society.

The two sides agreed to expand cooperation in security-defense and science-technology, continue to support each other at multilateral forums, and work together to respond to global issues such as climate change and food security.

President Vo Van Thuong and President Sergio Mattarella also discussed cooperation between Italy and ASEAN, cooperation between Vietnam and the EU, and the Indo-Pacific region. They reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea and settling disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law.