National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan will pay working visits to Argentina from June 30-July 2 and to Chile from July 3-5, Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Le Hai Binh announced at a regular press conference on June 26.

The visits will aim to strengthen and consolidate the multi-faceted cooperation between Vietnam and the two countries, especially in economics and trade, and at the same time exchange experience in implementing gender equality policies and increasing women’s leadership and their contributions to the country’s socio-economic development, stated Binh.

During her visits, Ngan and the Argentinean and Chilean sides will discuss ways to boost inter-regional cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South America as well as exchange opinions on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

Binh informed that the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting will be held in Hanoi on June 27-28.

The meeting will assess current developments which have caused deep changes to the region’s geo-strategic context and challenges to ASEAN’s central role.

It will deliberate a future regional architecture as well as how to intensify solidarity, voice and common responsibility of the bloc when it comes to regional strategic interests.-VNA