National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in a meeting with First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus Sokol A.N and other leaders of the party(Photo: VNA)
Minsk (VNA) - National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan had a meeting with First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus Sokol A.N and other leaders of the party in Minsk on December 13 as part of her official visit to the country.
The Vietnamese NA leader informed her hosts of her official visit to Belarus. The high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese legislature held talks with Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Vladimir Andreichenko and Chairwoman of the Council of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalya Kochanova, and had meetings with President Alexander Lukashenko and Prime Minister Sergey Nikolayevich Rumas.
Leaders of the two sides exchanged views on optimising the advantages that the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union brings about to enhance bilateral economic and trade cooperation. They also discussed measures to promote bilateral cooperation in specific fields, striving to lift two-way trade to 500 million USD per year.
NA Chairwoman Ngan shared that, before this meeting, she had a touching meeting with veterans who had fought in Vietnam, which recalled Belarus’s solidarity and multi-faceted cooperation with Vietnam. She affirmed that the Vietnamese people will never forget the great support and valuable assistance that the Communist Party of Belarus has given to Vietnam in the past struggle for national liberation and reunification as well as the building and development of the country today. She noted with pleasure that the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Belarus has been constantly strengthened and developed in recent years.
The top Vietnamese legislator appreciated the relationship between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Communist Party of Belarus. The two sides regularly exchanged congratulatory messages and had meetings and working sessions, she said, expressing her wish that the relations between the two Communist Parties will thrive in the time to come, with the maintainance of exchange and consultation mechanisms and delegation exchange activities.
Ngan asked the two sides further increase delegation exchanges and contacts; frequently share information, theory and experience in Party building; and closely coordinate at multilateral political parties’ forums.
Briefing on the socio-economic situation of Vietnam over the past time, she said the country has maintained a high GDP growth rate, at 6.8 percent in 2017, 7.08 percent in 2018 and an estimated of 6.8 percent this year. Vietnam currently has nearly 100 million people with more than 4 million Party members.
For his part, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus Sokol A.N said that he was impressed with the growth rate of Vietnam in recent years. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country has gained important achievements. He expressed his belief that the economic growth of Vietnam will continue to increase in the future.
He said he hopes that Belarus and Vietnam will fulfill their target of raising two-way trade to 500 million USD per year. Currently, Belarusian products are of Vietnam’s interest while Vietnamese goods are also favoured by the Belarusian people, he added.
Sokol A.N said that the solidarity between the people of the two countries and between the Communist Party of Belarus and the Communist Party of Vietnam will contribute to strengthening the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Belarus-Vietnam.
The same day, NA Chairwoman Ngan had a meeting with the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in Belarus and representatives of the Vietnamese community here./.
