Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet met with and received several Italian leaders on Dec. 10 (local time) as part of his visit to Italy.

Meeting with Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini, President Triet briefed about his earlier talks with President Giorgio Napolitano, reiterating specific measures to step up economic, trade and investment relations.

The president lauded growing cooperation between the two parliaments through an exchange of visits and shared experiences both bilaterally and multilaterally within the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting.

President Triet expressed his wish that the two legislatures continue to expand cooperative ties and support the implementation of high-level agreements signed between the two goverments.

Speaker Fini said President Triet’s first-ever state visit to Italy marks a milestone and is expected to elevate the two nations’ relationship to a new height, especially in the areas of specific cooperation.

While praising the huge achievements Vietnam posted in recent years, the speaker said that Vietnam is a model that should be studied in terms of weathering the world financial and economic crisis.

Fini expressed belief that Vietnam will contribute to the enhancement of ASEAN-EU relations when the country secures its position as ASEAN Chair in 2010.

At the meeting with Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, President Triet applauded the Italian capital city’s plan to participate in a number of celebrations for the millennial anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi. He invited Rome to join a club of a thousand year old cities recently set up by Hanoi .

The state leader said Vietnam wants to strengthen multifaceted cooperation with Italy and Rome in particular, and is willing to create favourable conditions for the Italian capital to beef up cooperative ties with provinces and cities of Vietnam in the fields of investment, business, culture and tourism.

During his separate receptions with General Secretary of the Party of Italian Communists Oliviero Diliberto, General Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party Paolo Ferrero, and leaders of the Italian Democratic Party, President Triet thanked them for the solidarity and support towards Vietnam during its past struggle for national liberation as well as its national construction and defence at present.

The president said he was delighted at developments in relations between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the fraternal communist and leftist parties of Italy .

The leaders of the communist and leftist parties of Italy expressed interest to ratchet up cooperative relations by collaborating with the Communist Party of Vietnam and studying Vietnam ’s renewal experiences, particularly its success in ensuring the balance between economic development and social equality.

President Triet conveyed best regards from Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh to General Secretary of the Party of Italian Communists Oliviero Diliberto, General Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party Paolo Ferrero, and General Secretary of the Democratic Party Luigi Bersani./.