Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique A. Manalo - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
At the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh welcomed Minister Manalo's first official visit to Vietnam; affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to promote the strategic partnership with the Philippines in an increasingly effective and practical manner; and respectfully conveyed his regards to Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.
Minister Manalo expressed his pleasure in his official visit to Vietnam and thanked Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for taking the time to receive the delegation; respectfully conveyed the greetings of the President of the Philippines to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and senior leaders of Vietnam; emphasized that Vietnam is the Philippines' only strategic partner in ASEAN and the two countries share many similarities as well as strategic interests. The Minister informed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of some outstanding results at the JCBC-10 Meeting co-chaired by him and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son; pledged to coordinate with relevant ministries, branches of the Philippines and Vietnamese partners to effectively implement the new agreements reached during this visit.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his satisfaction with the strong development of the strategic partnership between the two countries in recent times, especially appreciating the fact that the two sides have effectively maintained high-level contacts and exchanges; effectively promoted existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation; the total two-way trade turnover has grown remarkably, reaching nearly 8 billion USD in 2022, the highest ever; maritime cooperation, especially on marine ecological environment, marine economy, and combating illegal fishing, continues to be focused on and effectively promoted.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shares about Vietnam's socio-economic development situation as well as development policies based on three pillars - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shared about Vietnam's socio-economic development situation as well as development policies based on three pillars: building socialist democracy, building a socialist rule-of-law state and developing a socialist-oriented market economy; in which the goal of sustainable development and people-centeredness is consistent. In addition, Vietnam persistently pursues an independent and self-reliant foreign policy, being a responsible member of the international community, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
To continue to develop the bilateral relationship strongly in both breadth and depth, the Prime Minister suggested that the two sides maintain close coordination to ensure the progress of implementing the goals set at the 10th JCBC Meeting; focusing on increasing the exchange of delegations at high and all levels, promoting economic and trade promotion, including rice trade cooperation, considering removing unnecessary barriers and supporting each other to ensure food security, creating a favorable business and investment environment for each other's enterprises; strive to soon achieve a two-way trade turnover of 10 billion USD and promote cooperation in other potential areas such as digital economy, circular economy, green economy, renewable energy, climate change response, handling maritime issues, supporting each other in developing the marine economy, innovation, startups, etc. In addition, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of strengthening defense and security cooperation, especially maritime cooperation, and supported the early establishment of additional legal frameworks for security cooperation between the two countries; at the same time, affirmed Vietnam's four-no defense policy.
Minister Manalo thanked Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for his sharing and affirmed the Philippines' independent and autonomous foreign policy; emphasizing the similar approaches between the two countries in socio-economic development as well as regional and world strategic issues.
The Philippine Foreign Minister expressed his hope that the two countries would actively promote cooperation in cultural exchange, tourism, education and training, and local connectivity; emphasized the importance of agricultural cooperation and rice trade to ensure food security; and agreed to strengthen cooperation and share experiences in potential areas that are suitable to the interests of the two countries as mentioned by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, the two sides agreed to continue supporting each other, maintaining solidarity and the central role of ASEAN, maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, cooperating to resolve disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means, in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982); fully and effectively implementing the DOC, accelerating the negotiation process of an effective and substantive COC, in accordance with international law and UNCLOS 1982.
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