Johannesburg (VNA) – Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held separate meetings with his Dutch and Singaporean counterparts, Dick Schoof and Lawrence Wong, in Johannesburg on November 23, on the occasion of their attendance at the G20 Summit in South Africa.
Dutch PM Schoof sent his regards and expressed sympathy to Vietnam for heavy losses caused by recent storms and floods. Emphasising that, as a coastal country, the Netherlands deeply understands the increasingly complex and severe impacts of climate change. He affirmed the country’s readiness to cooperate with and support Vietnam in climate change response, and further strengthen the two Strategic Sector Partnership frameworks on climate action through programmes and projects in areas which are vulnerable to climate change.
Thanking the Netherlands for its support in climate change response in the Mekong Delta, PM Chinh affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance to comprehensively strengthening relations with the Netherlands — its trusted partner, good friend, and also its largest EU trade and investment partner.
He proposed the Netherlands promptly ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to further promote bilateral investment cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, urge the European Commission (EC) to soon lift its “yellow card” warning against Vietnamese seafood, and further step up bilateral collaboration in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and databases.
PM Schoof affirmed that Vietnam is one of the Netherlands’ most important partners in the Asia–Pacific region and agreed to step up high-level exchanges through all channels. He emphasised that the Netherlands is interested in trade and investment cooperation with Vietnam and has sent a delegation from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, together with a business delegation, to Vietnam to exchange views and seek cooperation opportunities. He also requested Vietnam’s support for Dutch businesses to participate in major projects in the country.
The Dutch leader agreed with PM Chinh’s proposal to continue expanding collaboration across all fields, particularly in economy, trade, investment, green transition, science and technology, innovation, and sustainable agriculture.
Both sides agreed to study the content of cooperation to elevate the bilateral relations to a new level in the near future; closely coordinate the implementation of outcomes and commitments from high-level visits; continue effectively implementing and fully promoting the opportunities provided by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA); and further deepen the two Strategic Sector Partnership frameworks on climate change response and sustainable agriculture.
On this occasion, the two leaders also agreed to beef up cooperation at multilateral forums and exchanged views on several international and regional issues of mutual concern.
At his meeting with PM Chinh, Singaporean PM Wong expressed his deep sympathy for the loss of life and property caused by recent floods in Vietnam.
Both leaders commended the outcomes of their second annual meeting held in Malaysia in October 2025. The Vietnamese PM proposed the two sides continue to promote the implementation of the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in a more intensive, substantive, and effective manner.
The two leaders agreed to closely coordinate in carrying out the results and agreements reached during Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam’s visit to Singapore, including an action programme for implementing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2025–2030 period.
PM Chinh asked Singapore to work with Vietnam to make bilateral cooperation in science-technology, innovation, digital transformation and green growth more practical and ambitious.
He also proposed both sides continue cooperating on the development of second-generation Vietnam–Singapore industrial parks (VSIP); building data centres and enhancing data connection between the two economies; strengthening high-quality human resources training for Vietnam; and promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Agreeing with the proposals presented by his Vietnamese counterpart, PM Wong affirmed that Singapore would continue supporting Vietnam in improving the quality of its human resources, particularly at the strategic level. He welcomed Vietnam’s suggestion on data connection cooperation, initially in the fields of economy, trade and population management. It is necessary to study the development of a data centre within a VSIP project to further facilitate business activities between the two countries.
Noting that Singapore will assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Vietnam will chair the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2027, PM Wong called for close coordination between the two sides to contribute to the overall success of their respective roles./.
