At the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group in Hanoi in 2018 (Photo: VNA)

The event was co-chaired by Deputy Foreign MinisterTo Anh Dung, head of the Vietnamese delegation, and Deputy Foreign MinisterAntoine Camilleri, head of the Vatican delegation.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed in depthabout the relations between Vietnam and Vatican, including issues related tothe Vietnam Catholic Church.

They recognised the positive development in thebilateral relations, especially the increasing regular exchanges between thetwo sides, as seen through the 7th meeting of the Vietnam-VaticanJoint Working Group in December 2018 in Hanoi and consultations between theVietnamese inter-sectoral working groups and the Vatican’s non-resident SpecialEnvoy Archbishop Marek Zalewski. 

The Vietnamese side affirmed that the State ofVietnam has consistently implemented and continuously improved the policy ofrespecting and ensuring the freedom of belief and religion of people as well ascreating the best possible conditions for the Vietnamese Catholic community tooperate and develop.

The Vatican side appreciated the Vietnamese State’sattention to the Catholic Church and reiterated the hope that the VietnameseCatholic community will follow the motto of good Catholics being good citizensand make active contributions to the country’s development and prosperity,implement well the Church’s teachings, and abide by Vietnam’s law.

Discussing Catholic activities, the two sidesagreed on measures to promote the bilateral relations, focusing on perfectingthe operational regulations of the Vatican’s resident special envoy and theresident special envoy office in Vietnam so as to implement them as soon aspossible.

They agreed to uphold the spirit of dialoguebased on respecting the agreed principles and emphasised the need to increaseall-level delegation exchanges, especially at high level, in the coming time.

During their stay in Vatican, the Vietnamesedelegation paid courtesy calls to Pope Francis, Secretary of State CardinalPietro Parolin andForeign Minister Paul Gallagher.-VNA