Philippine President’s Vietnam visit to give impulse to bilateral ties: Ambassador
Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming state visit
to Vietnam by Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. will create
momentum for the bilateral ties in all spheres, Vietnamese Ambassador to the
Philippines Lai Thai Binh has affirmed.
In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency
(VNA) ahead of the visit on January 29-30, the ambassador said Vietnam and the
Philippines established diplomatic relations on July 12, 1976, and officially
signed an agreement to upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership on
November 17, 2015.
Since then, the bilateral ties have continuously
developed in all fields, he said, elaborating that in politics, high-ranking leaders
of the two countries have maintained mutual visits as well as talks and
meetings on the sidelines of multilateral conferences.
In 2022, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue
had a very successful visit to the Philippines. Last year, Prime Minister Pham
Minh Chinh had four talks and contacts with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
on the sidelines of high-level conferences, demonstrating the closeness and
high political trust between the two countries.
The two sides have also maintained and enhanced the
efficiency of cooperation forums on national defence and security, both
bilaterally and within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the
diplomat continued.
The bilateral trade experienced a more than
three-fold rise over the past 13 years, from 2.5 billion USD in 2010 to 7.8
billion USD in 2022, which remained unchanged last year, he said.
In addition, cooperation in education, tourism and labour
is also developing dynamically, contributing to strengthening people-to-people
exchanges and deepening the strategic partnership, the ambassador added.
According to Binh, the Philippine President’s visit
has been prepared and accelerated by both sides since he took office on June
30, 2022, and it is set to reaffirm the solid strategic partnership, foster
political trust at the highest levels, and create momentum to promote the bilateral
cooperation in all fields and through all Party, Government, State, National
Assembly and people-to-people exchange channels.
The visit is also important to strengthening ASEAN’s
solidarity and centrality, especially in the context of political and security uncertainties
in the region and the world, including the situation in Myanmar and the East
Sea.
Through the visit, the strategic cooperation between
the two countries is expected to be comprehensively consolidated, for the sake
of their people, and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the
region and beyond, he said.
During the
visit, high-ranking Vietnamese and Philippine leaders are scheduled to witness
the signing of some important agreements in such areas as politics-security,
economy-trade, culture, education, tourism, agriculture and food security, Binh
stressed.
He held that the similarities in geographical
location, population, development level, history, culture and people will
create a favourable foundation for the two countries to step up their
collaboration.
The two countries will prioritise boosting some
spearheads in their cooperation, the diplomat said, explaining that they will
further deploy and improve the efficiency of existing maritime dialogue and
cooperation mechanisms.
They will also expand collaboration in defence industry,
search and rescue operations, humanitarian aid and natural disaster response,
while forging cooperation in fighting crimes and responding to traditional and
non-traditional security challenges, among other realms.
Two-way trade is set to reach 10 billion USD in the
time ahead, the ambassador said./.