Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh met with his counterparts from the Republic of Korea (RoK), Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM-51) and related meetings in Singapore on August 1.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (R) and Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa

At the meeting with the RoK’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa, Minh expressed his hope that the two sides would continue work together closely to implement important agreements reached during Korean President Moon Jae-in’s state visit to Vietnam in March 2018.

He took this occasion to reiterate the invitation to the Korean leader to attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN 2018 scheduled to take place in Vietnam in September.

Minh applauded agreements reached at recent meetings between leaders of the RoK and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as well as between leaders of the DPRK and the US.

Vietnam is willing to coordinate and promote its role in accelerating dialogue, cooperation and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula in a bid to ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the region, he stressed.

Having noted that Vietnam is the biggest partner of the RoK in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kang highly evaluated Vietnam’s role and hoped that Vietnam would continue supporting peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

Meeting with Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith, Minh once again extended his sympathy to leaders of the Lao Party, State, Government and people over great losses caused by the collapse of the Sepien-Senamnoi hydropower dam and believed that local residents in affected areas would overcome the aftermath and stabilize their live soon.

Both ministers highly appraised the increasingly close and practical relationship between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs and agreed to well prepare for and effectively carry out the regular consultation mechanisms at the foreign minister and deputy minister levels.

The two ministers consented to increase the exchange of information and closely coordinate with each other at regional and international forums as well as within sub-regional mechanisms.

They agreed to work with other ASEAN members to deepen the ASEAN Community’s cooperation process, strengthen solidarity, and enhance the bloc’s centrality and common voice in strategic matters of the region, including the East Sea issue.

At the meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, the two officials noted with pleasure that the Vietnam-Indonesia strategic partnership is developing fruitfully.

They agreed to coordinate together more closely to implement the important results reached during Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to Indonesia in August 2017 and the 3rd meeting of the Vietnam-Indonesia Bilateral Cooperation Committee in April 2018, and prepare for the upcoming high-level visits.

The two ministers emphasized the need to further boost economic and trade cooperation in an effort to elevate bilateral trade to 10 billion USD in 2020.

Marsudi welcomed Minh’s proposals on practical measures to step up bilateral ties, including the signing of cooperation deals on trade, agriculture-fishery, security, defence and crime prevention.

They promised to coordinate closely at regional and international forums, reinforce ASEAN’s solidarity, maintain the bloc’s central role and common voice in regional issues, including the East Sea matter, and work together to prompt ASEAN and China to soon build a effective and practical Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea.

Marsudi thanked Vietnam for supporting Indonesia’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the 2019-2020 term and reiterated her country’s backing for Vietnam’s bid to run for non-permanent membership of the UNSC in 2020-2021 tenure.

Meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Minh expected that the two foreign ministries would coordinate more closely, especially in holding celebrations for the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Minh suggested Malaysia create favourable conditions for Vietnamese products such as rice and farm produce to enter the Malaysian market in addition to promoting cooperation in the field of oil and gas and receiving more Vietnamese guest workers.

Saifuddin expressed his wish that Malaysia and Vietnam would further boost cooperative ties in politics-diplomacy and economy-trade and affirmed that Malaysia is ready to coordinate with Vietnam in regional issues in order to ensure solidarity, unanimity and ASEAN’s centrality.-VNA