Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle visits Vietnam

President Tran Dai Quang (right) receives Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who is paying a visit to Vietnam. (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Chile’s Ambassador to Asia-Pacific, is paying a visit to Vietnam from July 13-17.

During his trip, former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle met President Tran Dai Quang to discuss the Chile-Vietnam relationship, and international and regional issues of shared interest.

The former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle affirmed Vietnam is Chile’s important partner in Southeast Asia and wished to tighten the comprehensive relationship with Vietnam, particularly in economy, trade, investment, agriculture, science, education, health and technology.

He said the Chilean government looks forwards to a visit by President Tran Dai Quang.

For his part, President Tran Dai Quang welcomed former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle’s return to Vietnam on the 45th anniversary of the Vietnam-Chile diplomatic relationship and appreciated the positive progress of the relationship, including the Vietnam-Chile Free Trade Agreement, which took effect on January 1, 2014, helping raise two-way trade from 554 million USD in 2013 to one billion USD in 2015.

He also welcomed the fact that the two countries maintain the frequency and effectiveness of the Bilateral Free Trade Council mechanism and the Deputy Minister-level Political Consultation between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

The two sides agreed on the need to continue with measures to boost the comprehensive cooperation relationship as well as promote exchanges of all-level delegations.

They reached consensus that the two countries should continue signing cooperation agreements to complete the legal framework serving long-term and stable cooperation; push the passing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and support each other at international forums and multilateral forums.

Concerning international and regional issues, the two sides agreed to promote the regional integration process in Asia-Pacific via cooperation mechanisms and frameworks like APEC, FEALAC, ASEAN-AP and especially the TPP and shared viewpoints on maintaining peace, stability in the region and resolving territorial disputes via peaceful negotiations based on international law.

Within the framework of the visit, former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle also met officials of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, and Agriculture and Rural Development to discuss measures on making the cooperation relationship in trade, investment, agriculture, and rural development more practical and effective.-VNA