On behalf of President Tran Dai Quang, PM Phuc invited the RoK and Australian leaders to attend the 25th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting slated for this November in Vietnam. They thanked and accepted the invitation with pleasure.

He highly valued the RoK President sending a special envoy to Vietnam shortly after he was sworn into office, saying the move showed that President Moon attached importance to the two countries’ strategic partnership.

The two sides agreed to increase high-ranking visits and meetings amid the 25th founding anniversary of their diplomatic ties this year. The countries will bolster cultural exchanges and economic, trade and investment cooperation in order to raise bilateral trade to 100 billion USD in 2020.

Highlighting the RoK’s role as the biggest investor and the third largest trade partner of Vietnam, PM Phuc asked the RoK to import more advantageous products of Vietnam, like agro-forestry-fishery products, and to work closely with his country to effectively implement the Vietnam-RoK Free Trade Agreement.

He also asked the Northeast Asian nation to continue helping Vietnam take part in the RoK’s global supply chains, pay attention to technology transfer and support industries in Vietnam, and support Vietnam to access concessional loans of the International Development Association after 2017. He also hoped the country will help Vietnamese women who married RoK citizens better integrate into the local society.

For his part, President Moon pledged to order relevant agencies of the RoK to review and promote the implementation of Vietnam’s cooperation suggestions. He added that the RoK Government will better care for the Vietnamese women marrying RoK citizens so that they can integrate into the local society more easily and become part of his country’s cultural diversity.

At another meeting, PM Phuc and his Australia counterpart Malcolm Turnbull expressed their delight at the strong progress in their countries’ relations, discussing ways to strengthen the enhanced comprehensive partnership.

They agreed to continue reinforcing political trust through all-level delegation exchanges, especially at high levels.

Turnbull invited the Vietnamese PM to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in 2018 and visit Australia on this occasion.

The Government leader of Vietnam lauded Australia’s assistance to his country in such fields as climate change response, reform-innovation, startup support, and improvement of the private sector’s capacity.

He said the potential for bilateral economic-trade cooperation remains huge, asking Australia to facilitate the entry of Vietnamese products into the country, especially tropical fruits and aquatic products.

PM Turnbull stressed Australia wants to lift its relations with Vietnam to a strategic partnership, adding that the more than 200,000 Vietnamese-Australians and 25,000 Vietnamese students in Australia provide a very important foundation for bilateral ties.

He also emphasised that his country will keep supporting Vietnam to successfully organise the APEC Year 2017.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the Australian and RoK leaders echoed Vietnam’s viewpoints on the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation in and overflight over the East Sea, and on the peaceful settlement of disputes on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Also on July 7, PM Phuc had brief talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and the head of the Saudi Arabian delegation.

PM affirms Vietnam’s desire to enhance ties with Hamburg

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) and First Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz

Vietnam is ready to further promote its cooperative ties with Germany’s Hamburg state in the fields of science-technology, logistics and shipping-seaports, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

During a meeting with First Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz on July 7 within the framework of his official working visit to Germany, PM Phuc suggested the state encourages its businesses to invest in Vietnam, especially in the spheres of their strength such as shipbuilding, petrochemistry, aviation-aerospace, electronics, precision mechanics, chemicals and optical equipment.

The PM also recommended Hamburg to beef up cooperation in seaport management, planning and development with port cities of Vietnam, including Da Nang, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City, thus helping them get international scale and standards.

Mayor Scholz expressed his delight at positive development steps in the strategic partnership between the two nations in all areas, particularly in trade-investment, to which Hamburg has made a remarkable contribution.

He noted that Hamburg is home to the second largest system of seaports in Europe and the third largest in the world, where around 145 million tonnes of cargo are transited each year.

Hamburg is also a major gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter Germany and Europe, Scholz said, adding that the number of containers from and to Vietnam through the Hamburg port has increased 50 percent in recent years.

The Mayor applauded the PM’s proposals, saying that Hamburg will work with Vietnam to deploy cooperation initiatives in the future.

He also spoke highly of contributions by the Vietnamese community in Hamburg to strengthening friendship and trade-investment ties between Hamburg and Vietnam.

VNA