President Truong Tan Sang met with his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino III in Beijing on November 9 on the sidelines of the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting.

During the meeting, the two leaders exchanged ideas and plans to boost cooperation in politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, finance, education, culture, tourism, sea and ocean cooperation.

They agreed to convene soon the first joint working committee of their foreign ministries to discuss details for the establishment of the Vietnam-Philippines Strategic Partnership.

The two presidents agreed to take strong measures to bring two-way trade to 3 billion USD in 2016.

They also discussed international and regional issues of mutual interest and agreed to further boost and maintain peace, stability, security, and maritime safety and freedom in the region, and to promote peaceful settlement of all disputes based on international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They reached a consensus on close cooperation for the successful formation of an ASEAN Community by 2015 and mutual support as the Philippines prepares to organise the APEC Year 2015, followed by Vietnam in 2017.

The two presidents exchanged and accepted invitations to visit each other’s country.

The same day, the Vietnamese leader met representatives of leading US enterprises, who were also in Beijing for the APEC CEO Summit.

President Truong Tan Sang stressed that many positive developments in Vietnam-US ties were seen in the 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, especially after the two countries set up comprehensive partnership in 2013.

He praised US enterprises for being trustworthy partners and pledging long-term investment in Vietnam, adding that they have contributed to the development of bilateral relations.

For their part, the representatives spoke highly of Vietnam’s achievements in stabilising its macro economy, restructuring the economy and comprehensively boosting international integration.

They expressed their interest in the potential for investing and doing business in Vietnam and suggested measures that Vietnam could deploy to make full use of new opportunities opened up by regional links, especially the APEC and Trans-Pacific Partnership.-VNA