Vietnam and Indonesia should strengthen cooperation and coordination from the standpoint of building a stronger and more developed ASEAN community, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Dung made the suggestion on July 25 while receiving Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who is in Hanoi to chair the first meeting of the Vietnam-Indonesia Committee for Bilateral Cooperation.

The PM said he is pleased with recent strong developments in the multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, especially in economics, trade and investment, with two-way trade reaching over 4.6 billion USD in 2011 and 2.1 billion USD in the first half of this year.

The bilateral cooperation results have brought practical benefits to the development of the two countries as well as contributed to building a strongly-developed ASEAN community, he stressed.

Dung suggested the two countries continue to boost the implementation of cooperation agreements and programmes agreed by their high-ranking leaders in order to raise the bilateral ties to a new level.

Vietnam and Indonesia should closely cooperate in addressing the region’s common issues, including the East Sea issues, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and in the world, he noted.

He added that the two nations need to step up cooperation in diplomacy, security, defence and joint patrols at sea.

Vietnam will help Indonesia ensure food security, affirmed the Government leader.

After informing the host of the results of the first meeting of the committee, Marty Natalegawa stressed that Indonesia always attaches importance to developing cooperation with Vietnam , and will do its utmost to foster bilateral ties in all aspects.

He affirmed that Indonesia will continue to closely coordinate with other ASEAN countries in building a more prosperous ASEAN community as well as in dealing with regional and international issues, including the East Sea issue./.