President welcomes and holds talks with President of the European Council

The two sides expressed satisfaction with the bilateral relationship on all three pillars of economics-trade, politics and development cooperation.

At the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang and his wife, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and his wife paid an official visit to Vietnam from October 31 to November 2. On the afternoon of October 31, a solemn welcoming ceremony took place at the Presidential Palace.

This is the first visit of the President of the European Council to Vietnam since the two sides established diplomatic relations in 1990. After more than 60 years of establishment and development, the EU has been gradually built with the level of connection between its members increasingly expanding and deepening in many fields. In more than 20 years of establishing diplomatic relations, the two sides have regularly had meetings and delegation exchanges, and senior leaders of the two sides have always affirmed the importance of bilateral relations, wishing to strengthen multi-faceted cooperation commensurate with the potential and position of the two sides. The European Union has become one of Vietnam's leading important partners in many fields, especially economics, trade, and investment, actively contributing to the process of socio-economic development and international economic integration of Vietnam.

Immediately after the official welcoming ceremony, in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and President Truong Tan Sang informed each other about the situation of each side, reviewed the Vietnam-EU relations in the past and discussed major measures and directions to further strengthen the Vietnam-EU relations in the coming time. The two sides also exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

President Truong Tan Sang highly appreciated the first official visit to Vietnam by the President of the European Council since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect. President Truong Tan Sang informed the President of the European Council about the outstanding achievements of the renovation process, the socio-economic development situation and Vietnam's foreign policy; and thanked the EU and its member countries for their good sentiments and valuable assistance to Vietnam in the country's development and international integration.

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy expressed his pleasure to officially visit Vietnam, thanked the Vietnamese State and people for the warm welcome and good feelings for the delegation; highly appreciated Vietnam's socio-economic development achievements and believed that Vietnam will continue to promote reforms, overcome current economic difficulties, successfully carry out the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country and continue to be an attractive destination for foreign investors, including EU investors and businesses.

The two sides expressed their satisfaction with the rapid and positive development of bilateral relations in all three pillars of economics - trade, politics and development cooperation in recent times. The EU is currently one of Vietnam's leading trading partners, investment partners and donors, and Vietnam is the EU's fifth largest trading partner in ASEAN. Two-way trade in 2011 reached over 24 billion USD in the context of a difficult world economy, demonstrating a positive trend and great potential that needs to be further exploited. The signing of the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and the first round of negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are concrete and important steps to promote closer economic and political cooperation between Vietnam and the EU and its member countries towards equal partnership and comprehensive cooperation for development goals.

The two sides agreed to continue to increase contacts and exchange of delegations, especially high-level delegations; continue to encourage and create more favorable conditions for Vietnamese and EU enterprises to invest and do long-term business in each other's markets, especially in the fields of industry, infrastructure, transportation, energy, finance, healthcare, tourism and services. The EU committed to providing technical assistance and promoting negotiations so that the two sides can soon complete and sign the Vietnam - EU FTA; and promote the early recognition of Vietnam's market economy status. Vietnam proposed that the EU continue to maintain the full Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for Vietnam in the 2013 - 2015 period and prioritize the early implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA).

Vietnam thanked the EU and its member countries for providing official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam over the years. The two sides agreed to closely coordinate to effectively implement ODA programs for the 2011-2013 period and identify cooperation priorities for the 2014-2020 period on the basis of Vietnam's Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the 2011-2020 period, focusing on a number of important areas such as poverty reduction, sustainable development, environmental protection, and climate change response.

The two sides also agreed to strengthen specialized cooperation, especially in the fields of education - training, science - technology, natural resources and environment, agriculture and rural development, justice, culture - tourism, information - communications, transport and construction with specific technical assistance commitments from the EU for Vietnam.

The two sides agreed to enhance dialogue and cooperation at regional and international forums, especially at the United Nations, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and within the framework of ASEAN-EU cooperation. Vietnam welcomes the EU’s contribution to the process of building the ASEAN Community, participating in sub-regional cooperation initiatives and the EU’s commitment to play an active and constructive role in the evolving regional architecture with ASEAN as the core in East Asia. As the coordinator of ASEAN-EU relations for the 2012-2015 term, Vietnam will strive to promote the strengthening of ASEAN-EU relations.

The two sides support efforts to build a Southeast Asian region of peace, stability, cooperation and friendship; emphasize the need to ensure security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea; support the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, on the basis of international law, fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon reach a Code of Conduct (COC).

After the talks, President Truong Tan Sang and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy had a brief meeting with the press. The President once again highly appreciated the good cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) on all three pillars of economic, trade, political and development cooperation in recent times:

“The EU is one of Vietnam’s leading trading partners, investors and donors, and Vietnam is the EU’s fifth largest trading partner in ASEAN. The two sides signed the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in June 2012 and conducted the first negotiation of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in October 2012. This is an important concrete step towards building an equal partnership and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and the EU and its member countries.”

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy expressed satisfaction with the results of the exchange between the two sides, emphasizing the importance of cooperation with Vietnam in the cooperation strategy between Europe and Asia:

“Vietnam is a particularly important partner for the EU in Asia and ASEAN, a country with a rapidly growing economy and society, a young and well-educated population. I hope to expand the relationship between the two sides on the basis of the PCA signed earlier this year. I also appreciate the launch of negotiations on the free trade agreement FTA between Vietnam and the EU, which will mean boosting growth and jobs in Vietnam and the EU. We have a deep interest in Vietnam's success, because when Vietnam succeeds, it will bring benefits to the region and its friends in the world.”

On this occasion, President Truong Tan Sang and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy witnessed the signing ceremony of the 2012 Climate Change Funding Agreement worth 150 million Euros funded by the European Investment Bank and the Declaration on the signing of the Financial Agreement of the “European Trade and Investment Policy Support Project (EUMUTRAP)”./.

According to (vov.vn)-LT