Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged strengthening political trust between Vietnam and Timor-Leste through all-level exchanges, and expanding all-around cooperation, during a reception for Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Timor-Leste Bendito dos Santos Freitas in Hanoi on September 16.
Welcoming Freitas’s first official visit to Vietnam, the PM stressed that the trip, ahead of Timor-Leste’s ASEAN admission, will help deepen bilateral cooperation across sectors and elevate the bilateral relations to a new level in a more effective and practical, and closer manner.
He emphasised that Timor-Leste’s upcoming accession as the 11th ASEAN member is a historic milestone, reflecting its status, prestige, and continuous efforts.
The Government leader praised Timor-Leste’s leaders for visiting Vietnam for two consecutive years, most recently attending the ASEAN Future Forum in 2025.
Building on telecommunications cooperation through the successful joint project of Telemor, the PM expressed a hope for breakthroughs in trade and investment growth in the time to come. He urged the two sides to boost negotiations on agreements covering trade, investment protection, labour, and visa exemptions for ordinary passport holders, and strengthen cooperation in rice production, oil and gas, and digital services.
He called on the two countries to consider stepping up cooperation in other fields like telecommunications, defence and security, education and training, clean energy, and high technology.
Vietnam and Timor-Leste should effectively leverage emerging trends such as green economy, digital economy, clean energy, innovation, and artificial intelligence, while promoting people-to-people exchanges through tourism development and cultural interactions, he noted.
For his part, Freitas expressed his admiration for Vietnam and its people for remarkable achievements in socio-economic development over the past eight decades.
He highlighted that the people of Timor-Leste always remember Vietnam as the first country to recognise its independence in 1975, and consider it as a model for learning. Timor-Leste seeks to continuously strengthen, elevate, and deepen bilateral relations, he noted.
The official expressed the desire for continued cooperation with Vietnam in its economic transition and diversification through agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and food processing, towards sustainable development.
The two sides agreed to continue coordinating and supporting each other at multilateral forums.
PM Chinh emphasised that Vietnam will continue assisting Timor-Leste in effectively participating in ASEAN’s activities and keeping pace with the bloc’s development. He expressed his belief that Timor-Leste’s accession will open a new chapter for ASEAN, serving as a motivation for stronger and more united development within the group.
He also urged Timor-Leste, as a member state of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982) and a soon-to-be full ASEAN member, to continue supporting ASEAN’s common stance on the East Sea and jointly strive for an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (COC) that is consistent with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS, thereby contributing to making the East Sea a sea of peace, stability, cooperation, and development./.
