The establishment of strategic partnership with Malaysia, active and positive contributions to the building of an ASEAN Community, and the enhancement of relations with Bangladesh and Venezuela topped August’s diplomatic headlines.

Spurring ties with ASEAN  

August witnessed the new developments in the relations between Viet Nam and other ASEAN member states via the official visit of PM Nguyen Tan Dung to Malaysia and his attendance at the 50th anniversary of Singapore's Independence Day, and Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh's  participation in the 48th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM 48), and celebrations of the 48th ASEAN founding anniversary.

During the official tour to Malaysia from August 7-8, PM Nguyen Tan Dung and his Malaysian counterpart agreed to upgrade the bilateral ties to strategic partnership. Malaysia became the third strategic partner of Viet Nam in the ASEAN region after Thailand (June 26, 2013); Indonesia (June 27, 2013) and Singapore (September 12, 2013).

The two PMs concurred to beef up trade ties and raise the two-way trade volume to US$15 billion or higher in 2020.

The PMs shared concerns over recent developments in the East Sea, which they said had negatively affected trust as well as peace, security and stability in the region. They reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, maritime and aviation safety and freedom in the East Sea and tackling all disputes on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations on the Law of the Sea.

After the Malaysian tour, PM Dung came to Singapore to attend the 50th anniversary of its Independence Day.

On this occasion, PM Dung partook in a round table with Singaporean leading enterprises.

Earlier, Deputy PM, FM Pham Binh Minh on August 4 participated in AMM 48 in Kuala Lumpur của Malaysia. The Deputy PM underscored that Viet Nam positively contributed to AMM 48 and related meetings. As a country coordinator of ASEAN-EU, Viet Nam tried her best to speed up practical cooperation and encourage the EU to double aid for ASEAN and build a roadmap towards the formulation of the ASEAN-EU strategic partnership.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also held a solemn ASEAN flag raising ceremony to mark the 48th ASEAN founding anniversary(August 8, 1967 – August 8, 2015) and Viet Nam’s 20-year membership with ASEAN (July 28, 1995 – July 28, 2014).

Strengthening ties with Bangladesh & Venezuela

In the month, Viet Nam warmly welcomed two official visits of Bangladesh President Md Abdul Hamid (from August 9-13) and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro Moros (August 30-31) at the invitations of State President Truong Tan Sang.  

On this occasion, Viet Nam and Bangladesh issued a declaration and agreed to raise two-way trade volume to US$1 billion in 2016.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros and State President Sang agreed to boost strategic scopes of cooperation like energy, agriculture, and aquaculture and promised to spare no effort to raise two-way trade revenue to more impressive figure, especially US$1 billion in the short term.

In addition, in the month, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung visited the U.S., NA Vice Chairperson Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan came to visit Japan, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai had an African tour, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Viet Nam./.