NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (middle) and other delegates in a group photo. (Source: VNA) During the talks, Gustavo Penadés said he was impressed by Vietnam’s dynamicdevelopment, emphasizing that PARLASUR wishes to strengthen cooperation withthe National Assembly of Vietnam because of the Southeast Asian nation’s importantstrategic role in the region and the world.
He expressed the hope that after the visit, the relationsbetween Vietnam and MERCOSUR, which groups Brazil, Argentina,Uruguay, and Paraguay, will be strongly promoted in a more effective andpractical manner, bringing benefits to the people of Vietnam and MERCOSUR membernations.
For his part, NA Chairman Hue thanked Gustavo Penadésfor organising a meeting between the Vietnamese delegation and leaders of PARLASURduring his trip to Uruguay.
Vietnam values the role and importance of MERCOSUR in promotingintegration and economic, trade, and investment cooperation, he stated, notingthat this is an important factor contributing to promoting democracy, peace,stability and cooperation in the region and the world.
Vietnam attaches great importance to and wishes to further expand relationswith MERCOSUR in general and each member country of the bloc in particular, heaffirmed.
The two sides acknowledged with their pleasure that therelations between Vietnam and MERCOSUR and its member countries have beenstrengthened across fields.
The two sides have maintained meetings and exchanges of all-level delegations. MERCOSURis Vietnam's 13th largest trading partner with two-way trade increasing bynearly 5 times, from 2.45 billion USD in 2011 to 12 billion USD in 2022. Tradeflows between MERCOSUR and Vietnam account for nearly a quarter of the total tradeflows between MERCOSUR and ASEAN.
However, the Vietnamese top legislator said the results are not commensurate withthe existing potential, especially in trade and investment, noting that themain reason for this is that the two sides have not had a free trade agreement(FTA).
Vietnam has completed an internal reviewrelated to FTA negotiations with MERCOSUR, he stated, expressing the hope thatthe two sides will soon start negotiations towards signing the Vietnam-MERCOSURFTA to facilitate bilateral trade and investment activities.
This isespecially important in the context that investment flows and global supplychains are disrupted due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and complicatedand unpredictable developments in the world, Hue added.
Hue said Vietnam signed a number of cooperation agreements, frameworkagreements, and memorandums of understanding on cooperation in science-technology and other fieldswith member countries of MERCOSUR such as Argentina and Brazil, but cooperationwith MERCOSUR as a bloc in these areas remains limited.
The VietnameseNA has cooperative relations with the parliaments of 164 countries around theworld, including bilateral cooperation relations with all parliaments of MERCOSURmembers, Hue noted, saying that the Vietnamese NA is willing to contribute to connecting PARLASUR and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organisation.
The PARLASUR’s leaders expressed great interest in the possibility that Vietnam can serveas a gateway for MERCOSUR to enter ASEAN, and affirmed that they back theearly start of negotiations for the Vietnam - MERCOSUR FTA.
They suggested soon establishing a direct cooperation mechanismbetween the Vietnamese NA and PARLASUR, thus promoting cooperation agreementsbetween Vietnam and MERCOSUR.
On the occasion, the two parliaments issued a joint press statement./.
VNA
