Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to China is expected to convey many meaningful messages.

NDO - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will lead a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit from November 5 to 8, 2024. On this occasion, the Prime Minister will also attend the 10th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit (ACMECS), the 11th Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV) Summit and work in China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Thanh Binh. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam)

Before the working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Thanh Binh gave an interview to the press, sharing the contents related to this important working trip. Reporter: It is known that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation Summit, the 10th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit and the 11th Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam Cooperation Summit and work in China from November 5-8, 2024. Could you please share the purpose, meaning and importance of this working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh? Deputy Minister Pham Thanh Binh: This is the first time that the GMS , ACMECS and CLMV cooperation conferences have been held in person after 6 years, an opportunity for leaders to discuss cooperation orientations, helping the mechanisms firmly enter a new era of development. This working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to China is expected to convey many meaningful messages to the sub-region, the region and the international community: Firstly, upgrading the content of sub-regional cooperation. In the context of the world economy undergoing unprecedented profound and comprehensive transformation; the trend of green transformation, digital transformation, sustainable and inclusive development has become more urgent than ever, the Mekong sub-region needs to have "breakthrough" steps to meet new development requirements. At these conferences, in addition to traditional issues such as economy, trade and investment facilitation, hard and soft infrastructure connectivity, management and sustainable use of trans-border water resources, the Prime Minister and leaders will focus on discussing new issues, in which innovation stands out. New areas of cooperation are a strong driving force to position the GMS, ACMECS, CLMV mechanisms not only as traditional core mechanisms in sub-regional cooperation; but also pioneering mechanisms to bring the Mekong sub-region to a new height in the regional and international value chain. Second, enhancing political trust among member countries. This series of events brings together all countries along the Mekong River, which are also close neighbors with traditional friendship relations with Vietnam. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will have meetings with representatives of governments, localities, businesses and people of the countries, especially with the host China. This is an important occasion for Vietnam to demonstrate its goodwill to cooperate in an open spirit, enhance mutual understanding, contribute to deepening the friendly neighborly relations between Vietnam and member countries, as well as promote increasingly comprehensive economic, trade and investment cooperation. The working trip also aims to maintain the good development momentum of Vietnam-China relations, continue to concretize the high-level common perception reached by the two sides during the official visit to China by General Secretary To Lam (August 2024); maintain high-level exchanges and contacts, enhance political trust, promote practical cooperation between the two countries, promote Vietnam-China relations, both at the central and local levels, and develop stably, healthily and sustainably. Third, enhance Vietnam's position and prestige in the international arena. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's attendance at these events demonstrates Vietnam's commitment to the GMS, ACMECS and CLMV mechanisms in particular and Mekong sub-regional cooperation in general. The Prime Minister will also convey the message that Vietnam always attaches importance to and contributes to promoting the GMS, ACMECS, CLMV mechanisms as well as the overall Mekong sub-regional cooperation to create breakthroughs in the new development stage. Thereby, affirming the foreign policy mindset of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralization, being a friend, a reliable partner, an active and responsible member of the international community. Reporter: Could you please share the main contents of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's activities during the working trip? Deputy Minister Pham Thanh Binh: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's activities are expected to take place continuously for 4 working days in the spirit of efficiency, comprehensiveness and substance. Therefore, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working program will be extremely rich, diverse and substance, reflected in the following aspects: First, rich in form. According to the plan, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will attend and deliver important speeches at 3 multilateral conferences including the 8th GMS Summit, the 10th ACMECS Summit, the 11th CLMV Summit; conduct bilateral meetings with a number of important partners; attend activities to promote Vietnamese tourism, hold talks with businesses; visit a number of economic and logistic establishments in Kunming and Chongqing, China. Second, diverse in partners. During the working days, the Prime Minister is expected to meet with many important partners with potential for cooperation with Vietnam at all levels. These include development partners, multilateral financial institutions, central agencies, ministries, branches, localities, and Chinese enterprises. At the same time, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also spent time visiting and learning about the lives of overseas Vietnamese in China. Third, the content is substantive. The Prime Minister will focus on promoting areas of cooperation in line with Vietnam's development priorities in the new context. In particular, promoting traditional strengths such as trade-import and export of goods and services, strengthening hard-soft infrastructure linkages, sustainable and effective management and use of cross-border water resources; At the same time, actively seek resources to develop great potentials such as science and technology, innovation, intelligence, digital transformation, green transformation, serving the socio-economic development process of Vietnam as well as realizing Vietnam's commitments on sustainable development and emission reduction. I believe that with the direction of the Party, the State and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh himself, this working trip will bring many specific and substantive results for Vietnam, the Mekong sub-region, contributing to the process of building the ASEAN Community. Reporter: Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!