Hanoi (VNA) – President To Lam on June 28 received outgoing ambassadors of Colombia and Panama, who came to bid farewell to the leader before ending their terms of office in Vietnam.
Receiving Colombian Ambassador Miguel Angel Rodriguez Melo, President Lam congratulated the diplomat on his successful term in Vietnam and appreciated his positive contributions to strengthening and developing the cooperative and friendship relations between Vietnam and Colombia.
The President thanked the Government and people of Colombia for supporting Vietnam in bilateral activities as well as at international forums, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highly evaluating the role and position of Colombia in Latin America, he emphasised that Vietnam strongly supports the peace process in Colombia and wants to develop comprehensive cooperation in all areas, including politics-diplomacy, economy-trade, education, and people-to-people exchanges, for the benefit of the two countries' people, contributing to peace, stability and development in the two regions.
Hailing the ambassador's positive contributions to promoting the bilateral relations, the President said that the relationship has seen fruitful development, but the potential for cooperation remains huge. Therefore, the two sides need to continue to exchange information about their demands, promote and expand cooperation in other fields such as science - technology, finance and banking, traffic - transport, construction, housing and urban area development.
President Lam said the two sides should continue to create a favourable business and investment environment to strengthen connections between their business communities to increase two-way trade turnover to 1 billion USD in the near future.
Vietnam is ready to act as a bridge to help Colombia expand relations with ASEAN countries, the State leader said.
For his part, Rodriguez Melo affirmed that during his 5-year term, he has witnessed Vietnam's development achievements with an increasingly enhanced role and position in the region and in the international arena. He also better understood the country and people of Vietnam.
The Ambassador thanked Vietnam for always strongly supporting the peace negotiation process in Colombia, especially during the period when Vietnam assumed the role of rotating President of the United Nations Security Council; as well as its support and cooperation with Colombia not only in political and diplomatic relations but in many other fields and people-to-people exchanges.
Agreeing with President Lam's assessments, the Ambassador said that Colombia and Vietnam have much potential for cooperation in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, clean energy transition, and telecommunications.
He said the Colombian government looks forward to welcoming the President to visit Colombia soon, and expects Vietnam to soon open its embassy in Bogota, which will mark an important milestone to help promote and enhance cooperation between the two countries.
Receiving Panamanian Ambassador Eligio Alberto Salas, President Lam praised his contributions to strengthening and developing the traditional friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
The President affirmed that Vietnam highly evaluates Panama's important role and position in Latin America and Vietnam wants to further develop multi-faceted cooperation with Panama in areas such as politics-diplomacy, economy-trade, finance-banking, people-to-people exchanges.
He hoped that the two sides will maintain existing dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, coordinate to organise the second political consultation at the level of deputy foreign minister and the second session of the Vietnam - Panama Joint Committee for economic, trade and investment cooperation in Vietnam; as well as promoting new consultation and cooperation mechanisms.
Besides traditional cooperation areas, the President suggested that the two sides should expand cooperation in the fields of culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.
Alberto Salas agreed with the President's assessments of the cooperative relations between the two countries in recent years.
The Ambassador said that the two countries still have a lot of potential for cooperation and hoped that Vietnam will soon open a trade office in Panama to promoting the two countries’ economic and trade cooperation.
Thanking Vietnam for supporting Panama to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the diplomat affirmed that in any positions, he will continue to contribute to promoting friendship and cooperative relations between Panama and Vietnam./.
