Minister of Foreign Affairs receives former French Prime Minister

Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son hosted a reception in Hanoi on February 14 for former Prime Minister of France Edouard Philippe, who is now Mayor of Le Havre city.

Son expressed his pleasure to welcome Philippe on the occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties, and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership.

He thanked the former French PM for his sentiments and support to Vietnam as well as the relations between the two countries in any position, and affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and advocates enhancing the comprehensive cooperation with the EU, including France.

For his part, Philippe, who is on a visit to Vietnam from February 13-16, expressed his impression on achievements Vietnam recorded across spheres as well as the country’s strong development since his first visit to Vietnam as the PM of France five years ago.

The former PM said he hopes to return Vietnam to promote relations between localities of the two countries, and the France-Vietnam strategic partnership.

The host and guest shared the view that the strategic partnership is developing fruitfully and practically in all areas, with high political trust.

Son stressed that France is a leading European trade partner, investor and development assistance supplier of Vietnam, with two-way trade recovering quickly after the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting 5.3 billion EUR (5.7 billion USD) in 2022, up 10% year-on-year.

He suggested the two countries optimise opportunities generated by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and called on France to soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to give encouragement to Vietnamese and French investors.

Son also noted his hope that France will urge the European Commission (EC) to soon lift its “yellow card” imposed on Vietnam’s seafood in order to maintain the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fishermen and meet the interests of millions of European consumers.

Philippe expressed his hope to expand cooperation with Vietnamese ministries, agencies and localities in the areas of Le Havre’s strengths like seaport, shipbuilding, logistics, higher education and training for officials and public servants.

Le Havre will attend the 12th conference on cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities in the coming time, he said.

The two sides also compared notes on regional and international issues of shared concern. Regarding the East Sea issue, they emphasised the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation, and peacefully settling disputes on the basis of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and fully and effectively implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), towards reaching a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC)./.