London (VNA) - General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee To Lam has expressed his hope that cooperation between Vietnam and the UK in various fields, especially parliamentary collaboration, will be further strengthened and elevated to a level commensurate with the scope of their relationship, their potential, and the expectations of their people.
General Secretary Lam made the statement while meeting with Speaker of the UK House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle in London on October 29 (local time) within the framework of his official visit to the European nation.
Speaker Hoyle emphasised that this visit marks the beginning of a new phase of cooperation, carrying historical significance in bilateral relations across all fields, especially in parliamentary cooperation.
Expressing his delight at the increasingly substantive and fruitful cooperation between the two parliaments, the Speaker stressed that these are solid foundations contributing significantly to deepening the traditional friendship between the two countries.
General Secretary Lam affirmed that the Party, State, and National Assembly of Vietnam always attach great importance to developing the traditional friendship with the UK, in which the parliamentary channel plays a practical role in promoting and overseeing the implementation of intergovernmental agreements, as well as in deepening mutual understanding and trust.
Appreciating the important role of the House of Commons in the UK political system, particularly in legislation and foreign policy formulation, as well as the active contributions of Speaker Hoyle and other UK parliamentary leaders to parliamentary cooperation and bilateral relations over the past years, General Secretary Lam proposed the House of Commons continue to pay attention to, support, and urge the effective implementation of cooperation agreements between the two governments. These include the UK–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and programmes on education and training cooperation, scientific research, innovation, and human resources development.
He called on the House of Commons to continue allocating resources for development collaboration with Vietnam, especially in the areas of clean energy, climate change response, and public health; and support the negotiation and signing of a bilateral labour cooperation agreement, thus creating a legal framework for Vietnamese citizens with legitimate aspirations to work legally in the country.
Speaker Hoyle emphasised his desire for the two countries to work together in building a shared future, affirming that the House of Commons supports the UK Government in strengthening cooperation with Vietnam, particularly in areas of the UK’s strengths such as education and training, healthcare, and climate change response, while showing his wish to further promote people-to-people exchanges.
The two leaders agreed to continue enhancing cooperation between the two parliaments through the regular exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones; the establishment of friendship parliamentarians’ groups; and the promotion of exchanges and interactions between specialised committees. They also agreed to step up the sharing of legislative experience and the improvement of the legal framework to facilitate the expansion of bilateral ties.
Both sides also discussed strengthening coordination at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), as well as within regional parliamentary cooperation mechanisms.
Regarding the East Sea issue, the Vietnamese top leader proposed the UK Parliament continue to maintain an objective and balanced stance, and support ASEAN’s position of solving disputes by peaceful means, based on international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
On this occasion, he conveyed NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man’s invitation to Speaker Hoyle to visit Vietnam. Speaker Hoyle accepted the invitation with pleasure and expressed his hope to visit Vietnam soon./.
