At the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong and his wife, Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and his wife Louise Araneta Marcos will pay a State visit to Vietnam from January 29-30. This is the first visit to Vietnam by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. since taking office.
On the morning of January 30, the official welcoming ceremony for Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and his wife Louise Araneta Marcos took place solemnly at the Presidential Palace. Following that, President Vo Van Thuong held talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.
At the talks, President Vo Van Thuong warmly welcomed Mr. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. on his first state visit to Vietnam as President of the Philippines; emphasizing that the visit is of great significance, contributing to creating new momentum to further develop the Vietnam-Philippines strategic partnership, especially in the context of the two countries heading towards the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership in 2025 and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2026; at the same time, he congratulated the Philippines on its socio-economic development achievements, notably becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the region.
President Marcos Jr. thanked Vietnam for its warm and respectful reception of the delegation; highly appreciated Vietnam's remarkable socio-economic development achievements and outstanding foreign affairs achievements in recent times; affirmed that Vietnam continues to be the Philippines' only strategic partner in ASEAN; and wished to make cooperation between the two countries increasingly effective and substantive.
The two leaders highly appreciated the development of bilateral relations in recent times, especially after upgrading to a strategic partnership in 2015. Political and diplomatic relations have been increasingly strengthened through maintaining contacts and exchanges of high-level delegations and at all levels; bilateral cooperation mechanisms have been effectively implemented. Economic cooperation has developed positively with two-way trade turnover continuously increasing in recent years. The Philippines continues to be Vietnam's largest rice import market. Cooperation in fields such as culture, tourism, education - training, people-to-people exchange, etc. has recovered quickly after the pandemic.
Regarding the orientation for developing bilateral relations in the coming time, the two leaders agreed to further strengthen political and diplomatic cooperation through increasing the exchange of visits and contacts at high and all levels; jointly develop an Action Program to implement the Strategic Partnership for the period 2025-2030. The two sides also agreed to strengthen economic cooperation, striving to soon bring bilateral trade turnover to 10 billion USD by limiting the application of trade barriers, facilitating the import and export of goods with potential and strengths of both sides such as seafood, fruits, vegetables, etc.; making good use of opportunities from regional trade agreements; encourage businesses of both countries to invest in important areas such as processing technology, high-tech agriculture, infrastructure, oil and gas, etc. At the same time, expand cooperation to new and important areas such as digital economy, green economy, digital transformation, circular economy, renewable energy and strengthening the resilience of the supply chain, etc. The two sides agreed to cooperate in responding to climate change, overcoming pollution, reducing carbon emissions, and handling plastic waste, etc.
The Philippine President thanked Vietnam for its willingness to provide a stable and long-term source of rice to the Philippines, and appreciated the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on rice trade cooperation between the two countries on this occasion, contributing to ensuring food security and strengthening solidarity between the two countries. President Marcos Jr. highly appreciated the contributions of the Vietnamese community in the Philippines to the economic and social development of the Philippines.
The two leaders agreed to promote security and defense cooperation; emphasized the importance of maritime and ocean cooperation; and agreed to cooperate to improve capacity to prevent and combat transnational crimes and high-tech crimes.
President Vo Van Thuong asked the Philippines to continue to treat Vietnamese fishermen humanely, promptly extend the Agreement on the hotline between the two countries’ Ministries of Agriculture to quickly exchange information on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities, and support Vietnam in soon removing the yellow card from the European Commission.
The two leaders also agreed to expand cooperation in other important areas such as education, culture, and tourism, including opening more direct flights between the two countries; promoting people-to-people exchanges and promoting the role of friendship organizations to contribute to strengthening ties and mutual understanding, contributing to comprehensively promoting bilateral relations.
Discussing multilateral and regional cooperation, the two sides appreciated the two countries' regular coordination and mutual support for each other's candidacy for international organizations; agreed to support Laos in successfully fulfilling its role as ASEAN Chair in 2024 and coordinate with other ASEAN countries to maintain solidarity and unity within ASEAN. President Marcos Jr. affirmed his support for Vietnam to successfully host APEC Year 2027. Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides pledged to maintain and promote peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation; called on parties to exercise restraint, not threaten or use force, fully respect diplomatic and legal processes, and resolve disputes by peaceful means, on the basis of fundamental principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
On this occasion, President Marcos Jr. respectfully invited President Vo Van Thuong to pay a State visit to the Philippines at a convenient time. President Vo Van Thuong happily accepted the invitation.
After the talks, the two sides issued a Joint Press Statement and held a ceremony to exchange bilateral cooperation documents in the fields of agriculture, rice trade, maritime cooperation, and culture./.
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