PM greets Philippine foreign minister

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung hailed the working visit to Vietnam by Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario as a pragmatic contribution to enhancing the sound cooperative ties between the two countries.

At a meeting in Hanoi on October 21 with the secretary, the Government leader said Vietnam and the Philippines have friendly ties as neighbours and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), thus sharing mutual interests in the East Sea and responsibilities in building a strong and prosperous ASEAN Community.

He reiterated Vietnam’s consistent policy of sparing no effort to work alongside the Philippines to enhance the bilateral collaboration in a deep, inclusive, and effective fashion.

In this spirit, PM Nguyen Tan Dung called on the two countries to increase all-level delegation exchanges and further bolster economic links, especially in rice trading, investment and tourism.

He recommended cooperating in other fields such as fisheries, science-technology, culture, security, defence, and people-to-people exchanges, and confirmed that the Vietnamese Government will creates propitious conditions for Philippine businesses to make long-term and effective investment in Vietnam.

For his part, Albert del Rosario said the Philippines attaches great importance to cooperation with Vietnam across the fields, noting that during the 8th session of the bilateral cooperation committee, the two sides reached important consensus as well as bilateral cooperation deals, particularly in economics, sea and ocean, fisheries, security-defence, and people-to-people exchanges.

The diplomat expressed his deep concern over the complicated developments in the East Sea. He said using or threatening to use force is not a solution to addressing the East Sea issue.

Any disputes must be solved via peaceful means and on the ground of international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he stressed.

He shared the view that involved parties need to implement earnestly the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and hold result-oriented negotiations to build a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) as soon as possible for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region.

Also at the meeting, the two sides agreed to continue working together in handling violations of fishermen in the respective waters in the spirit of humanitarianism and the sound friendship and cooperation between the two countries.-VNA