Vietnam and the Philippines have strengthened ties between their navies, following a visit by President Truong Tan Sang to Manila yesterday.

President Sang held talks with Philippine President Benigno S Aquino III at the Presidential Palace in Manila yesterday.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of four co-operation agreements, including a Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening co-operation and sharing information between the two countries' naval forces and an agreement on establishing a hot line between the Viet Nam maritime police and the Philippines coast guard.

Agreements on the Viet Nam-Philippines action plan for 2011-16 and the Viet Nam-Philippines tourism co-operation plan for 2012-15 were also signed.

At the meeting, Sang congratulated the Philippine Government and people on their recent success in national building and development.

Sang said he believed the country would continue to gain greater achievements in the time to come, making the Philippines a prosperous nation that has an increasing role in the region and the rest of the world.

Exchanging views about bilateral relations, the two leaders said they were pleased with the strong development of bilateral relations during the past 35 years, especially in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, national defence and security, economy, trade, investment, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

They agreed to develop the two countries' relations to a new height in a more comprehensive, trustful and deep manner.

The two leaders agreed to further strengthen the exchange of visits at different levels, including people-to-people exchanges.

They said the Viet Nam-Philippines action plan for 2011-16 would be a favourable legal basis for the two sides to speed up co-operation in every specific aspect in the time to come.

They acclaimed positive developmental steps in the two countries' national defence and security co-operation while highlighting the value of the new agreements on naval co-operation.

While affirming maritime co-operation as a pillar in bilateral relations, the two leaders applauded the establishment of a joint maritime committee at a vice ministerial level and plans for its first session next year.

They discussed illegal fishing and agreed to work together to tackle this issue.

The two sides agreed to strive to raise trade turnover to US$3 billion or more by 2016 and strengthen investment in areas where the two sides have strengths.

The two leaders also agreed that Viet Nam and the Philippines needed to further strengthen co-operation in other fields, such as culture, tourism, education and training, energy, oil and gas and environmental protection.

Regarding international and regional issues, the two leaders affirmed to continue close co-operation at multilateral forums while supporting each other to be elected to international and regional organisations.

The leaders also discussed the East Sea-related issue, emphasising the importance of ensuring peace, stability, marine security, safety and freedom in the East Sea as well as peacefully solving disputes between concerned parties on the basis of international laws, especially the 1982 UN Convention of the Law on the Sea.

The two leaders also emphasised the central role of ASEAN, the importance of the implementation of the Declaration of Conduct of Parties (DOC) and the work towards building the Code of Conduct (COC) on the East Sea.

VNS