President Truong Tan Sang held bilateral meetings with leaders of China, Japan, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in Bali, Indonesia on October 7 on the sidelines of the 21st APEC Summit.

Meeting with General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President Xi Jinping, President Sang expressed his belief that China will gain greater achievements during its open-door renovation and construction of China-characterised socialism.

He spoke highly of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s forthcoming official visit to Vietnam as a contribution to further deepening the two countries’ comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

Xi expressed his profound condolences to the Vietnamese Communist Party, State and people over the death of legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap.

The two sides expressed their delight at the fine progress in their Parties and States’ relations, especially through the implementation of joint perceptions and important agreements reached by high-ranking leaders after President Sang’s visit to China in June.

At the meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Sang thanked the Japanese Government for maintaining official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam at a high level, and asked for the country’s support for Vietnam’s economic restructuring, industrialisation and modernisation.

PM Abe spoke highly of the success of the 2013 Vietnam-Japan Friendship Year, and agreed on the need for the countries to exert more efforts to realise the potential of their Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and coordinate in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The two sides also exchanged views on key issues of APEC-related meetings as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern. They agreed that peace, stability, maritime security and safety at sea, including the East Sea and East China Sea, are important to the development of the whole region, and relevant countries need to solve all disputes by peaceful means in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea.

President Sang also met with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who affirmed that his country will maintain ODA for Vietnam to support its socio-economic development, poverty reduction and human resources training.

The two leaders discussed directions to boost the Vietnam-New Zealand comprehensive partnership, especially strengthening high-ranking delegation exchanges and effectively implementing the 2013-2016 action programme on cooperation in economics, trade, investment, agriculture and education.

They also exchanged views on key cooperation activities among APEC member economies and coordination in TPP negotiations.

Meeting with Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, the Vietnamese State leader affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to fostering the friendship and cooperation with Papua New Guinea and is willing to act as a bridge for the country to cooperate with ASEAN and Southeast Asia.

To strengthen mutual understanding and tap their two countries’ potential, both leaders stressed the need to intensify the exchanges of delegations and businesses, establish inter-governmental cooperation mechanisms and complete a legal framework to create favourable conditions for cooperation projects and programmes on trade, investment, culture, tourism, agriculture, aquaculture and energy.

Earlier, President Sang also held a meeting with executives of nearly 20 major US groups and companies.

Accompanying the President in the trip, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Russia, Mexico and Peru the same day.

The sides highly valued the positive progress in bilateral relations and affirmed their determination to intensify ties and continue cooperating at regional and international forums.

At the meeting with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, the two sides discussed specific measures to further deepen the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.

They also agreed on the need to raise the efficiency of the two countries’ cooperation mechanisms, including the inter-governmental committee on economic, trade, scientific and technological cooperation and political consultation at the deputy foreign ministerial level.

At the meeting with Mexican FM Antonio Meade Kuribrena, the two sides agreed to further boost bilateral relations by strengthening delegation exchanges, setting up cooperation mechanisms and signing more agreements.

Meanwhile, FM Minh and his Peruvian counterpart Eda Rivas Franchini signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation within the APEC framework, which is expected to help the two countries cooperate more closely at the forum, especially to ensure the success of the APEC Summit in Peru in 2016 and in Vietnam in 2017./.