Vietnam, Brunei seek stronger comprehensive partnership
VOV.VN - The Vietnam - Brunei comprehensive partnership has grown steadily over recent times, with this being reflected in many aspects, such as the exchange of high-level meetings, investment, trade links, security, and defence.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his wife, and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation will pay an official visit to Brunei Darrussalam from February 10 to February 11 at the invitation of the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.
Both sides first established diplomatic ties on February 29, 1992, and a comprehensive partnership in March, 2019. Over the previous decades, the friendship and multifaceted linkages has enjoyed strong and substantive developments.
The two countries are both members of ASEAN. During the 30-year journey of establishing diplomatic ties, despite experiencing many ups and downs in the region and around the world, Vietnam-Brunei ties have continuously been consolidated and developed, recording plenty of achievements in the fields of economics, politics, security, defence, and education.
As part of the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties, both nations’ leaders exchanged congratulatory letters, emphasizing their determination to boost co-operation in a deeper and substantive manner as a means of contributing to building a harmonious, cohesive, highly adaptive, and effective ASEAN community to handle global challenges.
2019 marked an important development in joint ties when the leaders of the two countries agreed to upgrade the relationship to a comprehensive partnership on the occasion of the state visit to Vietnam by the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah in March, 2019.
The upgrading of relations to a comprehensive partnership in 2019 can be seen as a very important step, marking a transformation in both quantity and quality in the bilateral relationship. Indeed, it demonstrated the common determination of both countries’ senior leaders in making bilateral co-operation more practical in accordance with the new context of the global situation ,as well as the general trend of the region and the world.
Most notably, high-level meetings, as well as bilateral cooperation mechanisms, have been effectively maintained.
These include Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s meeting with the Sultan of Brunei within the framework of the ASEAN Leaders' Meeting in Jakarta in April, 2021, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue’s talks with Speaker of the Legislative Council of Brunei Abdul Rahman Taib in June, 2021, and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son’s phone conversation with the Second Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brunei Darussalam in April, 2021. This is along with a meeting with the Second Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brunei Darussalam within the framework of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers' Meeting in June, 2022 and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son’s official visit to Brunei to co-chair the second Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation in September, 2022.
Regarding investment and trade, the two countries have fulfilled the two-way trade target of reaching over US$500 million before the deadline by 2025.
As of October, 2022, bilateral trade turnover had reached US$638.5 million, up 141.4% on-year. Brunei ranked 26th out of 141 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with a total registered capital of US$971 million, with a specific focus on processing industry, manufacturing, construction, and real estate.
Regarding defence and security, the two countries continued to effectively implement co-operation contents on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral defence co-operation, including the exchange of delegations at all levels, training, and information exchange, along with co-ordination in search and rescue.
Creating linkages in energy, agriculture, education, maritime field, and people-to-people exchanges continues to be the focus of development.
The two sides have closely co-ordinated in regional and international issues of shared concern, including the East Sea issue. They have supported each other at multilateral forums, especially at the UN, ASEAN, and APEC.
As 30 years since the initial establishment of diplomatic ties has been reached, the occasion is a an opportunity for the two countries to look back on their achievements and work towards new goals in their bilateral relations moving forward.
Within the framework of this visit to Brunei, PM Chinh will hold talks with the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, visit a number of enterprises, and attend a business seminar in a bid to promote extensive ties, especially in the fields of energy, agriculture, education, and continue to exploit other potential fields.