Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reached agreement at their meeting on September 28.

PM Lee Hsien Loong spoke highly of Sang’s selection of Singapore as the first nation to visit after he took office, saying the visit will mark a milestone in relations between the two countries. 

Lee Hsien Loong highly valued Vietnam’s recent achievements, especially in maintaining political stability and economic growth. 

The two leaders expressed their pleasure at the dynamic and comprehensive friendship, cooperation and mutual trust between the two nations. 

Both highlighted the rapid and strong development of bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation. 

They agreed to accelerate the implementation of the framework agreement on Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity and expand Vietnam-Singapore industrial parks, while strengthening cooperation in areas such as national defence, security, tourism, culture and education. 

President Sang said Singapore has been one of the leading investment and trade partners of Vietnam, with two-way trade reaching US$6.2 billion in 2010. Singapore now has 938 projects in Vietnam, with a combined registered capital of nearly US$23 billion. 

The two leaders praised ASEAN’s important role in promoting regional peace, stability and cooperation and committed to coordinating with other member countries of the bloc to speed up the building of an ASEAN Community by 2015. 

Regarding the East Sea issues, they shared the same view on ensuring peace, stability and maritime safety in the East Sea on the basis of respecting international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). 

They welcomed ASEAN and China’s adoption of guidelines for the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and underlined the need to promptly build the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC). 

The Singaporean PM also affirmed that his country will continue assisting and cooperating with Vietnam in its negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. 

The same day, President Sang attended the inauguration of Uncle Ho’s statue at the Asian Civilisations Museum.