Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on July 31 paid a courtesy visit to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on the occasion of his visit to the Philippines to co-chair the 7th session of the Vietnam-Philippines Bilateral Cooperation Committee.

At the meeting, President Aquino III said his country always attaches importance to its friendship and multi-faced cooperation ties with Vietnam, both as neighbours and ASEAN members. He expressed pleasure at the robust development of the ties over the past time, especially Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s Philippines visit in 2011 and his visit to Vietnam in 2010.

The Philippine president applauded the effective work of the bilateral cooperation committee, adding that the 7th session will be a success with the careful preparations of both sides, helping expanding and deepening the bilateral ties in the coming time.

He also suggested the two countries’ foreign ministers seriously review and timely address remaining issues relating to the bilateral cooperation ties in order to ensure the scheduled implementation of the Vietnam - Philippines Action Plan for the period 2011-2016 as well as agreements to be reached at this time’s session.

For his part, FM Minh briefed the Philippine president on outstanding outcomes in bilateral cooperation since the previous session, especially in the fields of politics-foreign relations, economics-trade-investment, sea-ocean, and agro-fishery.

The Vietnamese minister said he believes the two sides will put forth many measures to expand cooperation to new fields in line with both sides’ potential.

He also expressed his wish that President Aquino III will direct Filipino relevant agencies to settle cases of detained Vietnamese fishermen and ships on the basis of humanitarian spirit and the fine bilateral ties between the two countries.

Discussing matters on the East Sea, the two sides upheld the principles of ASEAN on ensuring peace, stability, security, and maritime safety and freedom, settling disputes by peaceful means in conformity with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, carrying out seriously the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and ASEAN’s Declaration on Six-point Principles on the East Sea, and advancing towards the early building of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

On this occasion, FM Minh conveyed Vietnamese leaders’ invitations to President Aquino III to visit Vietnam.-VNA