- Vietnam strengthens ties with Italy, Vatican
- President’s visits to boost ties with Italy, Vatican, Francophone
- PM Phuc aspires stronger strategic partnership with Italy
On November 22, a red carpet welcome was given to State President Tran Dai Quang, who is on a four-day visit to Italy at the invitation of Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
After the welcome ceremony, President Tran Dai Quang and President Mattrella held talks and co-hosted a press conference.
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| President Tran Dai Quang and President Sergio Mattarella. |
At the talks, both sides agreed to intensify the exchange of all-level delegations and meetings, actualize the action plan on implementing the bilateral strategic partnership for 2017-2018, and maintain exchanges between the two countries’ Parties and citizens.
They concurred to prioritise economic cooperation and raise bilateral trade to US$6 billion during the 2017-2018 period.
Both will work to increase Italy's investment in Vietnam while creating the best possible conditions for Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products to enter the Italian market.
The two leaders consented to outline orientations for development cooperation in line with the bilateral strategic partnership, focusing on vocational training, environmental protection, water resources management and flood forecast.
The focus will be on culture, education-training and tourism and scientific-technological affiliation.
The Italian President pledged to continue assisting Vietnam in relic site preservation and offer more scholarships to Vietnamese students.
The Presidents agreed to work with each other to soon open a direct air route between the two countries and share experience in implementing public-private partnership (PPP) projects in logistics, shipbuilding, railways and infrastructure.
In terms of national defence and security, they will increase the exchange of information and experience in crime combat, and beef up affiliation in training, relief operations, bomb and mine clearance, defence industry, and joining UN peace-keeping missions.
Both nations will bolster coordination at multilateral forums like the UN, ASEAN, EU, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and UNESCO.
The two State leaders vowed to support each other in a bid to reinforce the relations between Italy and Asia-Pacific as well as between Vietnam and the EU, with heed paid to projects, programmes and initiatives on climate change response in combination with green growth.
The leaders highlighted the significance of maintaining peace, stability, and navigation and aviation safety and freedom.
They held that disputes in the East Sea should be addressed by peaceful measures on the basis of respecting international law, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon reaching a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
President Quang reiterated Vietnam's recognition of high importance on the friendship and all-around cooperation with Italy.
President Sergio Mattarella highlighted President’s Quang visit as a landmark in the bilateral strategic partnership which was set up in 2013.
Following their talks, the two leaders co-hosted a press conference to announce outcomes of their talks.
Earlier, President Tran Dai Quang visited the Vietnam Embassy and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Italy.
He said Vietnam-Italy relations have been strengthened in politics, socio-economy, science-technology, culture, and education.
“Vietnamese representative offices in Italy should continue to enhance Vietnam’s bilateral and multilateral relations. I hope that every individual of the community of 5,000 Vietnamese will be a bridge to promote Vietnam’s culture to Italy and uphold the tradition of unity and mutual support," President Quang said.
The President affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of considering overseas Vietnamese people an inseparable part of the nation.
The same day, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held talks with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, where the two sides reiterated their resolve to expand Vietnam-Italy relations.
The senior officials agreed that disputes in the East Sea should be settled through peaceful negotiations on the basis of respecting international law, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards building a code of conduct (COC).
