A high-level delegation of the Vietnamese Government led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on September 7 left Hanoi to pay official working visits to the European Commission (EC) and Belgium, and to attend the sixth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM 6) in Helsinki, Finland.

The PM is accompanied by Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Director of the Government Office Doan Manh Giao and leaders from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

This is the first overseas working visit by PM Nguyen Tan Dung in his new role in order to continue implementing external relations guidelines set by the 10^th National Party Congress.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung’s working visits to the EC and Belgium are aimed at raising Vietnam’s position and prestige in Europe to help strengthen Vietnam’s relations with the EC and Belgium, as well as building a comprehensive and sustainable partnership for the sake of peace, cooperation and prosperous development in the spirit of long-term stability and mutual trust.

In recent times, the relations between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) have seen positive developments in all fields as a result of exchange visits between top-level delegations. At the fifth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM 5), Vietnam and the EU successfully organised the first Vietnam-EU press conference in Hanoi on October 7, 2004, marking a new milestone in the history of bilateral relations.  The EU has supported Vietnam’s bid to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and has decided to remove garment and textile quotas for Vietnam as from January 1, 2005.

In the first half of this year, export turnover between Vietnam and the EU increased sharply. Vietnam worked out a project on Vietnam-EU regular exchange mechanism at ministerial level to help the EU consider the establishment of exchange mechanism with Vietnam.

The Vietnamese Government recently approved an overall project on Vietnam-EU relations and an action plan on developing Vietnam-EU relations. PM Nguyen Tan Dung is expected to handover concept papers to the EC President during his European tour.

Known as a country in the centre of Europe which plays an important role in the process of unifying the continent, Belgium is developing its relations with Vietnam finely. Vietnam is currently a unique Asian recipient of ODA from the Belgian Government. Belgium has three times cleared and converted total debts of US$68 million for Vietnam. However, Belgium’s investment in Vietnam remains modest although it is considered an important market in the EU for Vietnam’s exports.

The two countries have made remarkable progress in the areas of science, technology, education and training and culture. They have exchanged notes on their candidacy bids for non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (the 2007-2008 term for Belgium and the 2008-2009 term for Vietnam). The official visit to Belgium by PM Nguyen Tan Dung, followed by exchange visits of the two countries’ high-level delegations, will take the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new height.

After paying working visits to the EC and Belgium, PM Nguyen Tan Dung and the Vietnamese government delegation will attend the sixth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM 6) slated for September 10-11 in Helsinki, Finland. To mark ASEM’s 10 years of development, Mr Dung will deliver an important speech at the opening ceremony as the host country of ASEM 5 along with a speech from the host country of ASEM 6.

The Vietnamese PM’s participation in ASEM 6 will make ASEM cooperation more substantive and effective, contributing to raising Vietnam’s position and prestige within ASEM as well as in regional and international organisations. This will contribute to mapping out major orientations for ASEM dialogues and cooperation in the next ten years, promoting economic cooperation, and implementing the Hanoi Declaration on Closer Asia-Europe Economic Partnership. The PM Dung will have bilateral meetings to further strengthen relations between Vietnam with each ASEM member.

The sixth Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM 6) is a political event of great significance in partnership between the two continents, marking 10 years of the establishment and development of the ASEM cooperation process (1996-2006).

ASEM 6 is a special opportunity for member countries to review the achievements recorded during the past ten years and to devise future orientations for coming years.

In the past ten years, the ASEM cooperation process has obtained remarkable results.

The success of ASEM 5 in Hanoi was a historical turning point, marked by the first ASEM enlargement from 26 to 39 member countries and the orientations for making the cooperation process more substantive and effective.

ASEM cooperation based on the three pillars of politics, economics and culture has strongly promoted.

Politically, ASEM particularly focuses on major global issues. Economically, it priotises issues related to sustainable development, the environment, energy, trade and investment facilitation, finance and banking. Culturally, it gave much attention to culture-civilisation dialogues, religions and beliefs, and education and training cooperation.