(VOVWORLD) - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse welcomed Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim and his spouse, who are paying an official visit to Vietnam, at a ceremony held in Hanoi on Thursday.
 Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosts welcome ceremony for Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in Hanoi on July 20, 2023 (Photo: VOV) |
The trip on July 20 - 21 is the first official visit to Vietnam by PM Anwar Ibrahim since he took office in December 2022.
Following the welcome ceremony, the two PMs visited an exhibition featuring Vietnam, Malaysia, their people and relations jointly held by the Vietnam News Agency and the Vietnamese Government Office, and then held talks at the Government’s headquarters.
During the talks, the two Prime Ministers agreed to increase delegation exchanges and high-level contacts between the Parties, States, Governments, and Parliaments of the two countries, consider the building of mechanisms of meetings between the two Prime Ministers, and strengthen exchanges at multilateral forums.
They stressed the need to boost bilateral cooperation, raise bilateral trade to 18 billion USD by 2025, reduce trade barriers, facilitate the import-export of the two countries' potential products, including agricultural, fisheries and food products as well as electronics devices, take advantage of regional trade agreements, and expand bilateral cooperation to digital economy, circular economy, green economy and sharing economy,
Prime Minister Chinh said Vietnam is ready to provide stable rice supply to Malaysia and asked Malaysia to help Vietnam develop the Halal industry and soon sign an agreement on this regard.
The two sides agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation in defense and security and promote the signing of relevant documents, set up cooperation mechanism between the two countries' Navy and Air Forces and Coast Guards, coordinate the fight against terrorism and transnational crimes, strengthen coordination in fighting terrorist and reactionary organizations. They stressed the importance of not allowing any individual or organization to use the territory of one country against the other.
The two Prime Ministers also emphasized the importance of sea and ocean cooperation, considered the establishment of a consultation mechanism on maritime issues and a hotline to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked Malaysia to help Vietnam remove the yellow card of the EC.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to continue promoting cooperation in other fields, consider the signing of new cooperation agreements on aviation and tourism, step up cooperation in education, training, labor, agriculture, culture and sports, create conditions for the Malaysia-Vietnam Friendship Association to operate effectively, thus enhancing people-to-people exchanges.
The two sides agreed to coordinate with other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to ensure solidarity and unity in ASEAN, propose appropriate initiatives to realize 2023 ASEAN's priorities. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed his support for Malaysia to successfully assume the role of ASEAN Chair in 2025.
The two Prime Ministers agreed to continue to coordinate in the negotiation of the Code of Conduct (COC) and ensure the building of a COC in a substantive, effective manner in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
After the talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of Minutes of Agreement of the 7th session of the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation and Memorandum of Understanding between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Malaysian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.