Deputy FM highlights President’s fruitful visits to Brunei, Singapore

Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Hong Nam highlighted the remarkable outcomes of the State visit to Brunei from August 26-28 and to Singapore from August 28-30 by President Tran Dai Quang in a recent press interview.

He said Vietnam and Brunei are looking towards the celebration of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2017 while Vietnam and Singapore are gearing up for the 3rd anniversary of strategic partnership in 2016.

The visits aim to promote cooperation with Brunei and Singapore in politics, economic, trade, investment, security, defense, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, he added.

Politically, Brunei and Singaporean leaders hailed the President’s visits as a historical milestone that creates brilliant opportunities for the two sides to boost cooperative ties in all fields.

Regarding defense and security, Brunei and Singaporean leaders hoped to increase information sharing and coordination in anti-terrorism and hi-tech crime to prevent non-traditional security threats with Vietnam.

On economics, trade, and investment, the two countries confirmed that there is a plenty of room for bilateral collaboration.

Vietnam and Brunei have set a target of 500 million USD in two-way trade in 2025, which is to be realised through a Memorandum of Understanding on economic cooperation signed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Brunei’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade during the visit.

Meanwhile, the bilateral trade between Vietnam and Singapore recorded a strong growth of 10.6 percent to hit 21.6 billion SGD (15.83 billion USD) in 2015. Singapore is the third biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 16,000 projects worth approximately 38 billion USD.

At the business forums in Brunei and Singapore, the two countries’ enterprises showed their keen interest in investing in Vietnam and hope the Vietnamese Government will create more favourable conditions to attract foreign investment.

President Tran Dai Quang delivered a speech at the 38 th Singapore Lecture, during which he underlined sustainable development given rapid and complicated developments in the Asian-Pacific region, and intra-ASEAN cooperation to forge economic ties between member states, especially between Vietnam and Singapore.

Pertaining to culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges, Vietnam and Brunei welcomed the reopening of the direct air route between Bandar Seri Begawan and Ho Chi Minh City in October 2014. The two countries’ leaders also extolled the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on cultural cooperation.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed his pleasure at the increasing number of tourists to the respective countries and proposed the initiative to strengthen bilateral aviation connectivity to promote tourism and attract visitors from third countries.

Concerning regional and international matters, Brunei and Singaporean leaders confirmed to continuously coordinate with Vietnam at the United Nations (UN) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forums.

They underlined the significance of maintaining peace and stability in the region as well as overflight and navigation freedom in the East Sea, and settling disputes via peaceful means.

Singapore supports Vietnam’s position in the East Sea issue, including the respect of international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC); and close coordination to soon reach a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Concluding the visit, Vietnam issued a Joint Statement with Brunei and a Joint Press Statement with Singapore, reiterating bilateral wishes to ratchet up cooperation across politics, security, defense, economics, trade, investment, culture, education and people-to-people exchanges.

Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Hong Nam said Vietnam, Brunei and Singapore will continue to reinforce their sound political relations via high-level delegation exchanges in the coming time as well as actively accelerate the implementation of agreements reached in various fields, especially economics, defense, oil and gas, agriculture and tourism.-VNA