Singapore affirms COVID-19 vaccine co-operation with Vietnam

Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Belakrishnan made the statement during talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Hanoi on June 21.

The Singaporean diplomat highly appreciated Vietnam’s initial success in realizing the dual goal of epidemic prevention and economic recovery, thereby achieving positive growth in 2020.

Singapore always attaches importance to and wishes to develop friendly relations and effective cooperation with Vietnam, affirmed Belakrishnan.

He said Singapore is willing to cooperate with Vietnam in accessing COVID-19 vaccines and applying high-tech technologies in contact tracing and rapid testing, while agreeing to promote the establishment of a working group to formulate an agreement on mutually recognised vaccine certification.

For his part, Minister Bui Thanh Son spoke highly of Belakrishnan’s visit, which he said demonstrates the two sides’ determination to effectively promote the Vietnam - Singapore Strategic Partnership.

Both sides agreed to increase reciprocal visit exchanges and maintain cooperation mechanisms, first and foremost the organization of the upcoming 14th Political Consultation between the two countries’ Foreign Ministries.

The two ministers underlined the need to effectively implement the Vietnam - Singapore Economic Connectivity Framework Agreement, by taking specific cooperation initiatives in the areas of their potential and strength such as logistics, e-commerce, high-tech agriculture, and food processing.

They described the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs) as an effective economic cooperation model between the two countries, saying such model should be developed focusing on innovation, creativity and environmental friendliness.

Minister Bui Thanh Son suggested that Singapore open its market for a number of key Vietnamese exports such as agro-forestry and fishery products, garments and textiles. He also suggested that both Vietnam and Singapore strengthen chain cooperation in production and processing to bring into full play the potential of each side in order to promote bilateral trade and increase exports to other countries.

Noting that the digital economy is one of countries’ important development drivers in the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the two ministers agreed to promote the early establishment of a technical working group on the platform for digital partners, towards to a bilateral agreement on the digital economy.

They also agreed to implement specific measures to promote cooperation in other important areas such as education, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.

Both host and guest exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual concern and agreed that Vietnam and Singapore will continue to closely coordinate in regional and international organizations and forums, including the United Nations, APEC, ASEAN, and the Mekong Sub-region, as well as in the process of ratifying and implementing new generation free trade agreements like the CPTPP and RCEP.

They discussed the situation in the East Sea, saying parties concerned need to uphold peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea, in compliance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They also said the parties also need to fully and seriously implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and develop an effective and efficient Code of Conduct (COC) in accordance with UNCLOS 1982.

Following talks, the two Foreign Ministers signed a cooperation agreement on training for senior officials of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the 2021-2023 period.

The same day, Singaporean Minister Vivian Balakrishnan paid courtesy visits to President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.