Party General Secretary and State President To Lam’s freshly-ended trip for state visits to Mongolia and Ireland, an official visit to France, and attendance at the 19th Francophonie Summit produced outstanding results, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son.
Son noted that during the trip, the leader conduced nearly 80 bilateral and multilateral activities.
Lam’s visits were the first by a Vietnamese leader to Mongolia in 16 years, to Ireland in nearly 30 years and to France in 22 years. This was the first time a Party General Secretary and President of Vietnam had attended a Francophonie Summit.
Major results of the trip were shown through the countries’ warm, sincere and thoughtful welcome to the Vietnamese leader with many exceptions, demonstrating their special respect for Vietnam's position and prestige as well as the strong political trust between Vietnam and the countries.
Particularly, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the General Secretary and President of Vietnam with reception protocols that are higher than usual, Son said.
The FM stated that the trip was a big step to implement the foreign policy defined at the 13th National Party Congress. It made many important historical marks in Vietnam’s relations with the three countries, with three joint statements on the establishment of the Vietnam-Mongolia comprehensive partnership and the Vietnam-Ireland strategic partnership in higher education, and the upgrading of the Vietnam-France relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Besides, nearly 20 documents were signed, including seven cooperation documents with Mongolia in the fields of security, justice, transportation, education and locality-to-locality cooperation, and three with Ireland on higher education, food system transformation, economy, trade and energy. Vietnam and France also inked nearly 10 cooperation deals between their governments, ministries, sectors and localities, opening up opportunities for bilateral collaboration in many new fields.
Notably, the top Vietnamese leader’s announcement of the opening of the Vietnamese Embassy in Ireland after 30 years of the bilateral diplomatic relations is expected to open up a new development period in the bilateral ties, meeting the aspirations of the Vietnamese community in the country.
Another highlight of the trip is the upgrading of the Vietnam-France relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, marking a breakthrough step forward in the bilateral ties after more than 10 years of their strategic partnership. It will pave the way and lay a firm foundation for the reinforcement of political trust between the two countries, making the bilateral relations deeper for the benefits of the two countries' people as well as for peace and stability in the region and the world, said Son.
At the 19th Francophonie Summit in Paris, the top Vietnamese leader delivered an important speech sending out the message of strong support for multilateralism, emphasising the role of multilateral institutions, including the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), in promoting cooperation, responding to common challenges, as well as taking advantage of opportunities from the development of science and technology.
Party General Secretary and President Lam and leaders of IOF member countries adopted the Villers-Cotterêts declaration with strong commitment to promoting multilateralism for peace, friendship, solidarity and sustainable development. Vietnam took this occasion to enhance relations with countries and international organisations to introduce Vietnam’s great potential for economic and trade cooperation, especially in science and technology. At the summit, Vietnam was mentioned a lot in discussions as a model of development in the Francophonie community, according to the FM.
Son said that many heads of states and governments from French-speaking countries showed their wish to cooperate with Vietnam and learn its experience in socio-economic development; promoting collaboration in politics-diplomacy, economy, trade, education-training, culture and people-to-people exchange; and strengthening coordination in regional and global issues of common concern, both bilaterally and multilaterally.
These outstanding marks left in the entire trip once again affirmed the soundness of Vietnam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralidation, diversification, proactive, active comprehensive and extensive international integration in the spirit of the 13th National Party Congress. Vietnam not only promoted bilateral relations but also showed itsrole and responsibility towards international issues, the FM stated.
Regarding next steps to realise cooperation contents reached with the countries and at the summit, Son said that Vietnam will continue to strengthen political trust with Mongolia, Ireland, and France through delegation exchanges at all levels, especially high level, and via all channels of Party, State, Government, parliament and people-to-people exchange; while promoting solidarity and friendship with Francophone members. It will effectively maintain existing cooperation mechanisms with each country, and at the same time considering the possibility of establishing new and effective ones between their ministries, sectors and localities.
Meanwhile, Vietnam will continue to create momentum and promote cooperation for the implementation of joint statements on strengthening/upgrading relations, and agreements in specific fields reached with the countries, while bolstering the pillar of economic cooperation with Francophonie countries, making use of the potential of the community to promote collaboration in trade, investment, agriculture, energy, sustainable tourism, science and technology, innovation, and creativity, and tripartite cooperation to support Africa.
At the same time, in order to further foster community work and citizen protection, and make better use of the role of the Vietnamese community abroad to promote friendship and cooperation with the countries, relevant ministries, sectors and agencies need to focus on seeking solutions and deploy more drastic measures to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Vietnamese community abroad in general and in the three countries in particular, the FM asserted.
