Minister for Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem held separate receptions on July 22 for his counterparts from Turkey, Russia and Canada , who have been in Hanoi to attend ASEAN-related meetings.

Khiem, who doubles as Deputy Prime Minister, congratulated Turkey on its official joining of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) with ASEAN, describing it as an important step of development in relations between the country and the bloc.

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, spoke highly of Vietnam’s assumption of the ASEAN chairmanship and successful hosting of the 43 rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM-43) and related meetings.

Both ministers noted that bilateral relations are growing well, with two-way trade reaching 500 million USD in 2009.

The two ministers discussed a range of measures to further promote multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries, including the exchange of visits at all levels and business delegations, to achieve the target of 1 billion USD in trade turnover in the years to come. They also touched on ways of stepping up cooperation between the two Ministries for Foreign Affairs.

Receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Khiem applauded the Russian Federation’s participation in activities within the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and its efforts to strengthen Russia-ASEAN relations.

Host and guest exchanged views on measures to beef up the Vietnam-Russia strategic partnership and comprehensive cooperation, as well as to increase their coordination at regional and international forums.

The two ministers highly valued the results reached during Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh’s official visit to Russia earlier this month.

They agreed to accelerate preparations for the upcoming visit to Vietnam by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and work together to successfully hold the second ASEAN-Russia Summit.

On this occasion, Khiem and Lavrov signed a cooperation plan between the two Ministries for Foreign Affairs for the 2011-2012 period.

During his meeting with his Canadian counterpart Lawrence Cannon, Khiem praised Canada ’s accession to the TAC with ASEAN, and its strong commitment to maintaining peace, stability and development in the region.

The two ministers noted with pleasure the good coordination at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and recently at the G-20 Summit in Toronto , Canada .

They expressed delight at positive developments in the bilateral relationship, especially in economy, trade and investment, and agreed to speed up talks to soon sign a Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) between the two nations.

Also on July 22, Deputy Foreign Minister Dao Viet Trung received his Sri Lankan counterpart Gitanjana Gunawardena.

The two deputy ministers agreed to effectively deploy agreements reached at the second meeting of the Vietnam-Sri Lanka Joint Committee in August 2009 and during the Sri Lankan President’s visit to Vietnam in October 2009./.