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| Panorama of the meeting between President Vo Van Thuong and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (Photo: Tuan Viet) |
President Vo Van Thuong warmly welcomed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on his state visit to Vietnam, expressing his belief that the visit will contribute to strengthening friendship and political trust, creating momentum to comprehensively promote the Vietnam-Germany strategic partnership, for the benefit of the people of the two countries, for peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
Thanking President Vo Van Thuong for his warm and respectful welcome, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his impression of Vietnam's dynamic socio-economic development; emphasizing that over the past nearly 50 years, the close ties and mutual trust between the two countries have been continuously consolidated and developed; affirming his desire to strengthen multi-faceted cooperation with Vietnam, especially in the fields of trade - investment, energy conversion, labor and vocational training, development cooperation, as well as closely coordinating to contribute to peace and regional and global cooperation issues.
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| President Vo Van Thuong asked Germany to continue supporting Vietnam in training high-quality human resources and supporting the Vietnam-Germany University to expand and improve its operational efficiency. (Photo: Tuan Viet) |
President Vo Van Thuong emphasized that in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization and diversification of international relations, Vietnam always attaches importance to and prioritizes developing relations with Germany. On this occasion, the President thanked the State, Government and people of Germany for supporting and helping Vietnam in preventing and combating Covid-19, demonstrating the friendship and solidarity between the two countries, contributing to helping Vietnam repel the pandemic and soon reopen and restore socio-economic development.
In an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding, President Vo Van Thuong and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier discussed major directions and measures to further deepen the Vietnam-Germany strategic partnership, as well as shared regional and international issues of mutual concern.
The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the strong development of Vietnam-Germany relations over the past five decades, especially since the two countries established a strategic partnership. Political trust between the two countries has been increasingly consolidated through the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially at high levels, and close coordination at multilateral forums.
For many years, Germany has been Vietnam's leading economic partner in Europe and Vietnam is currently one of Germany's largest trading partners in Southeast Asia. Trade between the two countries is expected to reach approximately 12 billion USD in 2023, a three-fold increase over the past 10 years. Germany is the fourth largest investor among EU countries investing in Vietnam.
In order to promote the foundation of good relations and great potential for cooperation between Vietnam and Germany, the two sides agreed to further strengthen political trust through delegation exchanges and contacts at high and all levels, effectively deploy bilateral cooperation mechanisms including the Strategic Dialogue, the Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation, the Government Consultation on Development Cooperation, the Dialogue on the Rule of Law, and coordinate to effectively implement the Vietnam - Germany Strategic Action Plan for the period 2023 - 2025.
The two leaders were pleased to see that the bilateral cooperation in education and training has achieved many positive results, especially the Vietnam-Germany University, a symbolic project of the bilateral relationship, which is operating effectively. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hopes that the two sides will continue to closely coordinate so that the Vietnam-Germany University can develop successfully, especially attracting more and more Vietnamese students.
President Vo Van Thuong asked Germany to continue supporting the training of high-quality human resources for Vietnam and support the expansion of the Vietnam-Germany University and its improvement in operational efficiency.
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| President Frank-Walter Steinmeier affirmed that Germany is ready to support Vietnam with technology, experts, and finance in implementing the JETP framework. (Photo: Tuan Viet) |
In the economic field, the two sides agreed to continue to fully and effectively implement the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), facilitating each country's key products to access each other's markets. The German President affirmed that Vietnam is a reliable economic partner and wishes to promote economic cooperation with Vietnam, especially in investment.
President Vo Van Thuong asked Germany to soon complete procedures to ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and urge the European Commission (EC) to soon remove the IUU yellow card on Vietnamese seafood.
President Vo Van Thuong thanked Germany for its support to Vietnam in the field of development cooperation over the past three decades, making positive contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic development, and asked Germany to continue providing ODA to Vietnam in the fields of energy, environment and vocational training.
Regarding climate change response, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier affirmed that Germany is ready to support Vietnam with technology, experts, and finance in implementing the JETP framework to contribute to realizing the commitments to reduce emissions to zero by 2050 that Vietnam made at the COP26 Conference.
The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of security - defense, science - technology, justice, agriculture; promote cultural exchange activities, thereby contributing to enhancing understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries, practically celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam - Germany diplomatic relations in 2025.
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| President Vo Van Thuong and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier take a photo together. (Photo: Tuan Viet) |
President Vo Van Thuong hopes that Germany will continue to care for and create conditions for the Vietnamese community in Germany to live stably, continue to be a bridge, and actively contribute to the friendly relations between the two countries. The German President affirmed that the 200,000 Vietnamese community in Germany has successfully integrated and made positive contributions to the local society.
On the international front, the two countries agreed to coordinate and support each other at regional and multilateral forums such as the ASEAN-Germany cooperation framework, ASEAN-EU, and the United Nations. Regarding the East Sea issue, the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, resolving disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and supporting the substantive and effective COC negotiation process between ASEAN and China.
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| Signing ceremony of the Cooperation Agreement on Migrant Labor between the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Germany. (Photo: Tuan Viet) |
After the talks, President Vo Van Thuong and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier witnessed the signing ceremony of the Cooperation Agreement on Migrant Labor between the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Germany.
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