Opening up new development space for relations between Vietnam and three Middle Eastern countries

In an interview about the results of the visit to three Middle Eastern countries by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife along with the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said the visit ended successfully, bringing Vietnam's relations with the three countries into a new phase of stronger and more comprehensive development.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister, please tell us the significance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit to three Middle Eastern countries ?

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, have just successfully concluded their visit to three Middle Eastern countries. The visit is an important milestone, demonstrating the developing relationship between Vietnam and the three countries and has special significance.

Firstly, the visit is of utmost importance, affirming the new thinking, new strategic vision, and strong determination of the Vietnamese leaders in bringing relations with the three key countries of the Gulf region into a new phase, stronger, more comprehensive, with deeper trust, and more open opportunities.

Second, the visit has elevated the relationship between Vietnam and the three countries in particular, and the Middle East - North Africa region in general. The official upgrading of relations with the UAE to Comprehensive Partnership has opened up new development space for the relationship between the two countries, expanding our Comprehensive Partnership network to 13 countries; at the same time, the agreement between Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to promote the early elevation of relations to a new height in the coming time has created momentum for the comprehensive development of friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and the countries, creating leverage to strengthen relations with other important partners in the Middle East - North Africa region.

Third, the visit once again demonstrated innovative thinking, strategic vision, strong commitment, and decisive action in promoting multifaceted cooperation with the potential Middle East region. The visit has strongly opened up more markets for Vietnam's export goods, while attracting high-quality investment capital from leading investment funds and corporations in the world, expanding cooperation in priority areas of Vietnam such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, clean energy, green transformation, digital transformation, innovation, and Halal industry development..., bringing specific and practical benefits for the country's development in the coming time.

UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan presided over the official welcoming ceremony for Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Deputy Prime Minister, could you please tell us the main results of the visit?

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son: During his visit to the three countries, the Prime Minister had a dense, rich, practical and effective working program with nearly 60 activities, including talks and meetings with senior leaders, ministers, leaders of corporations and large investment funds of the three countries; speaking at the 8th Future Investment Initiative Conference (FII8) in Saudi Arabia; delivering a policy speech at the UAE Diplomatic Academy; speaking at the Vietnam - UAE Business Forum; attending the opening ceremony of Vinfast's showroom in the UAE; opening ceremony of FPT's office in Saudi Arabia; visiting the Ras Laffan petrochemical complex in Qatar; meeting with embassy staff and the Vietnamese community in the three countries... During the working trip, the ministers and local leaders participating in the delegation also had dozens of meetings and working sessions with partners.

The Prime Minister's visit was a great success, achieving the set goals with many important and substantive results, contributing to consolidating and strengthening the friendly and cooperative relations with the three countries. The leaders of the countries gave a thoughtful and respectful welcome with many exceptions for the Vietnamese leaders, showing that all three countries attach importance to the relationship with Vietnam in the "Look East" policy, and at the same time consider Vietnam as a leading important partner in Southeast Asia. The leaders of the three countries all expressed their admiration for Vietnam's glorious history, highly appreciated its potential, development achievements and its increasingly high position and role. In the meetings with the Prime Minister, the leaders of the largest investment funds and large corporations of the three countries were very excited, highly appreciated Vietnam's development potential and affirmed that after the visit, they would immediately send delegations to Vietnam to explore investment and business opportunities.

During the visit, many important documents were adopted, including the Joint Statement on upgrading Vietnam-UAE relations to Comprehensive Partnership, the Joint Press Release between Vietnam and Qatar, 33 cooperation documents in the fields of trade-investment, finance, energy, innovation, standards, measurement and quality, education-training, sports, cooperation between enterprises, etc., creating the basis for promoting cooperation in all fields between Vietnam and the three countries to develop more strongly.

Besides, The visit deepened political trust and strengthened the good personal relations between the Vietnamese high-ranking leaders and the high-ranking leaders and royal families of the three countries. The meetings and contacts between the Prime Minister and the leaders of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar took place in an atmosphere of sincerity, trust, substance and mutual understanding, affirming the determination to develop bilateral relations in a practical, effective and long-term manner.

Not only that, The visit also achieved many substantial and breakthrough results in the fields of economic, trade and investment cooperation. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the UAE is the 17th free trade agreement that Vietnam has signed, setting a two-way trade target of 20 billion USD in the coming time... With Saudi Arabia, the two sides agreed to target a trade turnover of 10 billion USD; promote the development of Saudi Arabia to become one of the leading investors in Vietnam... With Qatar, the two sides agreed to make efforts to increase bilateral trade turnover in the coming time; study the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Trade; consider the possibility of building a Vietnam Product Exhibition Center in Qatar; promote cooperation in the financial sector...

At the same time, it creates new momentum, opening up many cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and the three countries in many fields, including new and potential fields. In addition to the goal of turning traditional fields such as security, education, tourism, people-to-people exchange... into a solid foundation for long-term friendship and cooperation, Vietnam identifies the pillars of future cooperation with the countries as innovation, green transformation, digital transformation, and development of the Halal industry in Vietnam...

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the 8th Future Investment Initiative (FII8) Conference in Saudi Arabia - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

In Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister attended the 8th Future Investment Initiative Conference with the theme "Infinite Horizons: Investing Today, Shaping the Future", sending a message about Vietnam as a dynamic, innovative country that is ready to exchange, share and propose investment initiatives with other countries for a sustainable and prosperous future. During the meetings with the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Egypt and the Crown Prince of Jordan, the leaders of the countries deeply admired President Ho Chi Minh and had special affection for the country and people of Vietnam. The Prime Minister and the leaders of the countries had in-depth and comprehensive discussions on the relations between Vietnam and the countries as well as measures to promote the development of all aspects of the relationship to match the potential and aspirations of Vietnam and the countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the Prime Minister of the State of Qatar witnessed the signing ceremony of the Protocol between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam amending the Agreement on air transport signed on March 8, 2009 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Deputy Prime Minister, could you please tell us the direction of implementing the results achieved from the visit?

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son: In the spirit of valuing "time" and "intelligence" as emphasized by the Prime Minister, we need to be determined to implement the following priorities:

One is, Strengthen cooperation in all fields of politics-diplomacy, defense-security, technology, agriculture, industry, energy, tourism...; regularly exchange specific information with the two sides' focal points agreed upon during the visit in the spirit of "what is said must be done, what is committed must be implemented".

Second, To concretize the signed agreements and commitments of the two countries' senior leaders, the Ministers, relevant sectors and localities proactively review the signed cooperation agreements, including the CEPA Agreement between Vietnam and the UAE, develop specific action plans, and ensure the highest progress and implementation efficiency.

She is, Continue to improve the investment and business environment, creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese and foreign enterprises to increase investment and business cooperation with each other.

Four is, promote people-to-people exchanges, boost cultural, educational and tourism exchanges, enhance mutual understanding between the Vietnamese people and the three countries; create the most favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community living, working and studying in the three countries to stabilize their lives, work with peace of mind for the long term, contributing to being a solid bridge for the friendly and cooperative relations between Vietnam and the three countries.

I believe that with great determination, the results achieved during the Prime Minister's visit will be effectively implemented, contributing to the comprehensive development of the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, bringing practical benefits to the people and businesses of both sides, contributing to peace, stability and development of the region and the world as well as helping Vietnam steadily enter a new era, an era of national growth./.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/mo-ra-khong-gian-phat-trien-moi-cho-quan-he-cua-viet-nam-va-ba-nuoc-trung-dong-382578.html