Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Within the framework of an official working visit to Germany, on the evening of July 6 local time, or early morning of July 7 Hanoi time, right after arriving in Hamburg, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked Chancellor Angela Merkel for inviting Vietnam to visit and attend the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, and for giving the high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Government a thoughtful and respectful reception.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly welcomed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to visit the Federal Republic of Germany; affirmed that Germany's invitation to Vietnam to attend the G20 Summit demonstrates its respect for Vietnam's role and position in the international arena; and expressed confidence that the visit will strongly promote the Vietnam-Germany strategic partnership in many areas.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that Vietnam attaches special importance to developing relations with Germany, Vietnam's leading partner in Europe for many years in the fields of politics-diplomacy, trade-investment, education-training, science-technology. The two sides agreed to continue maintaining existing effective cooperation mechanisms, such as the Deputy Foreign Minister-level Strategic Steering Group, the Rule of Law Dialogue and the Working Group in the fields of economics-investment, science-technology, in order to effectively implement the Vietnam-Germany Strategic Action Plan and enhance mutual understanding and trust. The two sides agreed to maintain regular exchanges of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, and support each other at multilateral organizations and forums.

Germany pledged to continue supporting Vietnam in developing relations with the European Union (EU), as well as promoting the early signing of the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU.

The two sides highly appreciated the long-standing friendly relations between the two countries and were pleased to note that over the years Germany has always been Vietnam's leading trade partner in the EU, with two-way trade turnover in recent years stabilizing at approximately 9 billion USD; Germany is currently Vietnam's 5th largest investor in the EU with a total registered capital of 1.4 billion USD.

The two Prime Ministers agreed that the two countries still have much potential for cooperation and need to coordinate to promote and create more opportunities for the business communities of the two countries to interact with each other at bilateral business forums during high-level visits or at global economic forums.

The two Prime Ministers were pleased with the positive results of the Vietnam-Germany Business Forum held during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit, with 28 agreements signed with a total value of over 1.5 billion euros.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to encourage German small and medium-sized enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam, especially in areas where Germany has strengths and Vietnam has demand, such as supporting industries, railways, tourism infrastructure, transportation - seaports, renewable energy, food industry, production and assembly of hybrid buses, etc.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that Vietnam will create an open and favorable environment for foreign investors, including German investors, to operate long-term in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Government will create favorable conditions for the German House project in Ho Chi Minh City to come into operation in the third quarter of 2017; at the same time, it is ready to dialogue with the German side to resolve the remaining problems of German investors in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The two leaders were pleased with the effective cooperation between the two countries in the fields of education and training, labor, and science and technology; agreed to continue efforts to turn the Vietnam-Germany University, a lighthouse project in early education cooperation, into a leading German training and research institution in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, providing high-quality human resources that meet international standards, meeting Vietnam's development needs in the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution. The two sides will consider the possibility of signing a Government-level Agreement or a Tripartite Agreement to create an important and long-term legal basis for the Vietnam-Germany University.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to continue supporting projects to teach German and Vietnamese at the secondary level in Vietnam and Germany; consider expanding cooperation in vocational training for Vietnamese workers to work in Germany, first of all expanding the training program and employing Vietnamese nurses in Germany and implementing the Letter of Intent between the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Health of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state on cooperation in training health human resources signed during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit to Germany.

Regarding science and technology cooperation, the two sides agreed to promote technology transfer in areas where Germany has strengths and Vietnam has demand, such as wind power, food industry, application of information technology and biology for sustainable development, etc., typically implementing the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the production of high-performance small-scale wind turbines between Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Germany's University of Rostock, which was just signed during this visit.

Regarding security and defense cooperation, the two Prime Ministers agreed that the two sides will support each other in the field of criminal justice and consider the possibility of negotiating an extradition agreement and an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons to perfect the basic legal framework for cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crimes.

On this occasion, Chancellor Angela Merkel highly appreciated the potential and creativity of the Vietnamese community in Germany, which has made positive contributions to the cultural diversity and common prosperity of the host country; emphasizing the importance of the community as a bridge of friendship between the two peoples.

Regarding international and regional issues of mutual concern, the two leaders agreed on the need to resolve disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law. As a leading country in the EU with experience in handling maritime disputes, Germany affirmed its support for freedom of navigation in the East Sea and Vietnam's just stance to resolve disputes in the East Sea by peaceful means in the spirit of respect for international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC)./.

According to Vietnam +