Enhancing Vietnam's position and prestige in the international arena

LTS-On the occasion of Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh leading the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit, 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 answered the press about the purpose and significance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip. We would like to respectfully introduce the content of the interview.

Reporter (PV): Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will attend the 8th GMS Summit, the 10th ACMECS Summit, the 11th CLMV 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 Foreign Minister Pham Thanh Binh: This is the first time 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, region and international community:

First, upgrading the sub-regional cooperation content. In the context of the world economy undergoing unprecedented profound and comprehensive transformation; the trend of green transformation, digital transformation, sustainable and inclusive development is more urgent than ever; the Mekong sub-region needs to make breakthroughs to meet new development requirements.

At these conferences, in addition to traditional issues such as economics, trade and investment facilitation, hard and soft infrastructure connectivity, and sustainable management and use of transboundary water resources, the Prime Minister and leaders will focus on discussing new issues, notably innovation. These new areas of cooperation are a strong driving force to position the GMS, ACMECS, and CLMV mechanisms not only as traditional core mechanisms in sub-regional cooperation; but also as pioneering mechanisms to bring the Mekong sub-region to a new level 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 and have traditional friendly 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 both sides during General Secretary To Lam's visit to China (August 2024); maintain high-level exchanges and contacts, enhance political trust, promote practical cooperation between the two countries, and promote Vietnam-China relations, both at the central and local levels, to develop stably, healthily and sustainably.

Third, to 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 to 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, and an active and responsible member of the international community.

PV: Could you please share the main content of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's activities during the working trip?

Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Thanh Binh: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's activities are expected to take place continuously over four 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:

Firstly, rich in form. According to the plan, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will attend and deliver important speeches at three multilateral conferences including the 8th GMS Summit, the 10th ACMECS Summit, and the 11th CLMV Summit; hold bilateral meetings with a number of important partners; attend activities to promote Vietnamese tourism, hold talks with businesses; and visit a number of economic and logistics establishments in Kunming and Chongqing, China.

Second, diversifying 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, including development partners, multilateral financial institutions, central agencies, ministries, branches, localities, and Chinese enterprises. At the same time, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will also spend time visiting and learning about the lives of overseas Vietnamese in China.

Third, the content is substantial. The Prime Minister will focus on promoting cooperation areas that are consistent with Vietnam's development priorities in the new context; including 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 seeking resources to develop great potentials such as science-technology, innovation, intelligence, digital transformation, green transformation, serving Vietnam's socio-economic development process 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 practical results for Vietnam, the Mekong sub-region, contributing to the process of building the ASEAN Community.

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