Vietnam always treasures strategic partnership with Singapore, President Phuc says
VOV.VN - President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has affirmed Vietnam's consistent policy of always attaching importance to and the nation’s desire to promote the strategic partnership with Singapore in a more reliable, substantive and effective manner.
State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a meeting with Singapore President Halimah Yacob following the official welcome ceremony for the Vietnamese State leader, his wife and high-ranking Vietnamese delegation at Istana Palace on February 25.
During the meeting, President Halimah Yacob affirmed the significance of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit, emphasizing that this is the first state visit of a foreign head of state to Singapore since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the rapid and strong developments in the bilateral relationship, especially since the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2013. Notably, political trust has been consolidated, while bilateral economic cooperation is becoming one of the bright spots in the region.
Singapore remains the fourth largest trading partner and the largest investor in Vietnam in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The island-city state has just become the second largest investor out of 140 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with a total registered capital of US$66 billion.
Cooperation in defence-security, culture, education and people-to-people exchanges continues to see strong development. The two sides have actively cooperated to share experience and offer mutual support in medical equipment and supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Towards the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership in 2023, the two leaders agreed on a number of major orientations for cooperation between the two countries, including early resuming delegation exchanges at all levels and levels, and maintaining bilateral cooperation mechanisms in order to remove difficulties and push up specific areas of cooperation.
They also consented to enhance connectivity between the two economies, focusing on cooperation in areas of the 4.0 technology era such as digital economy, digital transformation, innovation, development of high quality human resources, and green and sustainable development.
The pair welcomed the two countries reaching an agreement on mutual recognition of vaccine certificates on the occasion of this visit, thereby helping to facilitate travel and, and contributing to the socio-economic development and recovery efforts of each country in the "new normal".
They concurred to step up cooperation in education, culture, tourism, people-to-people exchanges as well as cooperation at regional and international forums.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc invited his Singaporean counterpart Halimah Yacob and her husband to visit Vietnam at an appropriate time, and his invitation was graciously accepted.