Vietnam-Malaysia dialogue promotes strategic partnership

The Malaysian diplomat expressed his appreciation for Vietnamese success in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and continued socio-economic development. He also congratulated the country on its outstanding achievements recorded in external relations over recent years, including successfully assuming the role of ASEAN Chair 2020, along with serving as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council amid the global epidemic.

Vietnam remains the only strategic partner of Malaysia in ASEAN and the UN he said, adding that the Malaysian side always places great importance on ties and hopes to ramp up co-operation in a more extensive and effective manner moving forward.

In response, Hieu applauded the efforts made by the Malaysian Government and people in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, while expressing confidence that Malaysia would be able to bring the pandemic under control for the sake of economic recovery and development.

He therefore thanked Malaysia for creating favourable conditions for repatriation flights which bring home Vietnamese citizens, before asking the Malaysian side to pay attention to Vietnamese businesses and citizens residing there, whilst also giving humane treatment to local fishermen under arrest.

Moving forward, Vietnam will continue to offer optimal conditions for Malaysian investors, experts, managers, and skilled workers as they enter the country on the basis of compliance with medical requirements and disease control.

Sharing the positive developments in the joint strategic partnership over recent years, both sides have exchanged views on specific orientations for co-operation across multiple fields. This has been done in order to realise the outcomes of the meeting between the two Prime Ministers held during the recent ASEAN Leaders' Meeting from April 23 to April 24 in Indonesia.

The two sides used the occasion to affirm that they would closely co-operate to enhance high-level delegation exchanges across all levels when conditions permit, whilst implementing bilateral co-operation mechanisms, such as the Joint Committee, in the near future.

The Joint Trade Committee will soon finalise the Action Plan aimed at implementing a strategic partnership for the 2021 to 2025 period for approval at the sixth session of the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. This event is scheduled to take place in the second half of the year.

They also compared notes regarding regional and international issues of shared concern, thereby affirming that they will continue to closely co-operate and offer mutual support at multilateral organisations and forums, including ASEAN and the UN.

With regard to the East Sea issue, the pair emphasized the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety of navigation, and overflight in the East Sea. This should be done whilst settling disputes by peaceful measures in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), whilst creating favourable conditions for the negotiation process of a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).