Politics

☕ Afternoon briefing on April 16

Vietnamese PM Le Minh Hung's phone talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong, NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man's attendance at the opening of the IPU-152, and the presentation of the 20th Devotion Awards are among news highlights on April 16.

☕ Afternoon briefing on April 16

Hanoi (VNA) – The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency.

– General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and President of Vietnam To Lam, his spouse and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam departed Beijing on April 16 morning for a visit to Nanning city, continuing their state visit to China.

They travelled by high-speed train after concluding official activities in Beijing. Expressing his impression of China’s high-speed rail achievements, General Secretary and President Lam underscored the importance of enhancing bilateral cooperation in transport connectivity, particularly railways, to support green development and national growth. Read full story

– Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on April 16 held phone talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong who expressed his desire to work closely with the Vietnamese PM to advance the Vietnam – Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in a more substantive and effective manner.

vietnamese-and-singaporean-pms-hold-phone-talks.jpg
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung holds phone talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong on April 16. (Photo: VNA)

PM Hung noted that Vietnam is preparing new policies to attract greater foreign investment, including from Singapore. He called Singapore’s support in developing international financial centres in Vietnam, as well as expanding and upgrading next-generation Vietnam–Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) in tandem with high technology transfer. Read full story

– Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man and a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam attended the opening ceremony of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-152), themed “Nurturing Hope, Securing Peace and Ensuring Justice for Future Generations”, in Istanbul, Türkiye, on April 15 evening.

The ceremony saw the presence of Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmus, IPU President Tulia Ackson, IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong, along with more than 60 speakers, 40 deputy speakers, and over 1,000 legislators from 114 IPU member parliaments. Read full story

– Vietnam and China are stepping up efforts to steer bilateral trade towards a more balanced and sustainable trajectory, with Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Le Manh Hung calling for a restructuring of production, trade, and supply chains alongside stronger investment cooperation.

Hung made the remarks during talks with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao on April 15, held as part of Party General Secretary and State President To Lam’s state visit to China. Read full story

– The Vietnamese Defence Attaché Office in Italy has been inaugurated in Rome, marking a new step forward in bilateral defence cooperation and contributing to enhancing mutual understanding and deepening the Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and Italy in the time ahead.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony on April 14, Deputy Minister of National Defence Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Hien reaffirmed that Vietnam consistently pursues an independent, self-reliant, peaceful, cooperative, and development-oriented foreign policy. He stressed that the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) has continuously promoted international integration and defence diplomacy at both bilateral and multilateral levels, achieving a range of practical results. Read full story

– The Ministry of Industry and Trade launched on April 16 the Vietnam National Brand Week 2026 and the national brand forum under the theme “Vietnam National Brand in the New Era”, highlighting efforts to elevate the country’s competitiveness and global standing.

vietnam-national-brand-week-2026.jpg
The launch of the Vietnam National Brand Week 2026 on April 16 (Photo: VNA)

Running from April 16 to 23 nationwide, the Vietnam National Brand Week 2026 marks the 18th anniversary of Vietnam Brand Day (April 20, 2008 – 2026). The event serves as a convergence of policy, business and market players, featuring the opening ceremony, the national brand forum, thematic seminars, exhibitions and business networking activities. Read full story

– The 20th Cong hien (Devotion) Awards, organised by the The Thao & Van Hoa newspaper under the Vietnam News Agency, took place on April 15 evening in Hanoi, marking two decades of honouring excellence in music and sports.

Over the past 20 years, the Devotion Awards have established themselves as one of Vietnam’s most prestigious cultural honours. Initially focused on music, the awards expanded to include sports in 2023, while maintaining their core mission of recognising genuine creative dedication. Read full story./.

VNA
#afternoon briefing #Lawrence Wong #IPU-152 #Devotion Awards
Follow VietnamPlus

Related News

☀️ Morning digest on April 16

☀️ Morning digest on April 16

Party General Secretary and State President To Lam's meetings with Chinese leaders, PM Le Minh Hung's attendance at the expanded online summit of the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) on energy security, and EuroCham's release of the Business Confidence Index (BCI) for Q1 are among news highlights on April 15 evening.

See more

Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man (R) meets President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Patrick Achi on the sidelines of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-152) in Istanbul, Türkiye, on April 16. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam, Côte d'Ivoire strengthen parliamentary, economic ties

On parliamentary cooperation, the top Vietnamese legislator called for increased the exchange of high-level delegations and closer collaboration between the two legislatures, including sharing legislative experience and strengthening ties between their respective committees.

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man (left) and Yerlan Koshanov, Speaker of the Mazhilis - the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament, during their in Istanbul, Türkiye, on April 16 (Photo: VNA)

NA Chairman meets with Kazakhstan’s lower house speaker in Türkiye

The two sides also consented to continue close coordination at multilateral parliamentary forums, particularly the IPU, promoting the role of legislatures in advancing multilateralism and respect for international law, and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation and development regionally and globally.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and State President To Lam (L) receives Chen Gang, member of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Photo: VNA)

Top Vietnamese leader receives Secretary of Guangxi’s Party Committee

Vietnam is a close neighbour, trusted friend and one of Guangxi’s most important partners. The Party organisation and authorities of China's autonomous region attach great importance to friendship and cooperation with Vietnamese localities; and will continue to take the lead in thoroughly implementing the important common perceptions reached by the two top leaders, thereby deepening cooperation and friendship between China and Vietnam.

Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at their meeting in Istanbul on April 16, 2026. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese NA Chairman meets Turkish President

Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasised that economic, trade, and investment ties should serve as key pillars of the relationship. They agreed to create favourable conditions to raise bilateral trade turnover to 4 billion USD, while continuing to encourage Turkish enterprises to invest in Vietnam and contribute to its economic development.

Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Thanh Man speaks at the general debate of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-152) in Türkiye on April 16, 2026. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam's top legislator addresses general debate at 152nd IPU Assembly

Vietnam is striving with confidence and self-strengthening to enter a new stage of development, aiming to become a developing country with modern industry and upper-middle income by 2030, and a high-income developed country by 2045, said NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man at the general debate of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-152).

Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Thanh Man speaks at the policy dialogue aimed at promoting Vietnam–Türkiye cooperation (Photo: VNA)

NA Chairman attends policy dialogue promoting Vietnam–Türkiye cooperation

Türkiye is one of Vietnam’s key partners in the region, serving as a strategic bridge between Asia and Europe. Conversely, Vietnam, with its dynamic and fast-growing economy, is an important gateway for Türkiye to access Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific markets. These complementary advantages provide a solid foundation for the two countries to further deepen their cooperation in the coming period.

Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Thanh Man (R) presents a commemorative gift to Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili during their meeting in Istanbul on April 16, 2026. (Photo: VNA)

NA Chairman meets Georgian parliament speaker on IPU-152 sidelines

NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man underlined that there remains ample room to further expand cooperation between Vietnam and Georgia in areas where both sides have strengths and potential, including education and training, culture, tourism, sports, logistics and transport, particularly rail transport.

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung (C, first row) and representatives from 52 leading US enterprises (Photo: VNA)

Prime Minister meets delegation of leading US businesses

At the meeting, representatives of USABC, the US Embassy in Vietnam and participating businesses commended Vietnam’s socio-economic achievements and improving investment climate, as well as its strategic development orientation toward rapid and sustainable growth driven by science, technology, innovation and digital transformation.

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra (R) receives President and CEO of Japan’s erex Co., Ltd. Honna Hitoshi (Photo: VGP)

Deputy PM hails cooperation in personnel training with Japan

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra highly valued the training programme jointly implemented since 2022 by Vietnam’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Japan’s erex Co., Ltd, which focuses on enhancing public administration capacity, particularly for grassroots officials, young civil servants and female cadres. Through the initiative, nearly 300 local-level officials and leaders from Vietnam have been sent to Japan for training and professional development.

President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Lee Jae Myung (Photo: Yonhap)

RoK President to pay state visit to Vietnam

President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Lee Jae Myung and his spouse will pay a state visit to Vietnam from April 21 – 24 at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and State President To Lam and his wife./.

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung holds phone talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong on April 16. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese Prime Minister holds phone talks with Singaporean counterpart

PM Hung noted that Vietnam is preparing new policies to attract greater foreign investment, including from Singapore. He called Singapore’s support in developing international financial centres in Vietnam, as well as expanding and upgrading next-generation Vietnam–Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) in tandem with high technology transfer.

Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Thanh Man and other heads of delegations at the opening ceremony of the IPU-152 in Istanbul on April 15 (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam’s top legislator attends opening of IPU-152

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmus described the IPU-152 as an event of historical importance with a highly relevant theme, not only globally but also directly related to important developments in regions.