NA Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty (seventh, right) and other Vietnamese officials in a photo with Alfonso Rodriguez Gomez de Celis (seventh, left), the first deputy head of the Spanish lower house’s standing committee (Photo: daibieunhandan.vn) Madrid (VNA) – A senior official ofSpain’s Congress of Deputies expressed his hope for greater strides incooperation with Vietnam in the time ahead while meeting with Vice Chairman ofthe Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Do Ba Ty in Madrid on October 1.
The session between Ty and Alfonso RodriguezGomez de Celis, the first deputy head of the Spanish lower house’s standingcommittee, was part of a working visit to the European country by ahigh-ranking Vietnamese NA delegation from September 30 to October 2.
At the event, the two sides highly valued theircountries’ strategic partnership.
The host official noted Spain was the firstEuropean nation to have set up a strategic partnership with Vietnam. Over thelast 10 years, bilateral economic and trade ties have enjoyed manybreakthroughs. Both sides have maintained cooperation in both bilateral and multilateralframeworks like the United Nations and cooperation mechanisms of the EuropeanUnion.
He said his country wishes bilateral cooperationwill enjoy more breakthrough developments in the time to come.
For his part, NA Vice Chairman Ty said thefriendship and collaboration between Vietnam and Spain are currently on anupward trend, especially after the elevation of their ties to the strategicpartnership towards the future in December 2009.
He affirmed that Vietnam always sees Spain as animportant partner in the EU and hopes to promote bilateral connections,particularly in economy, trade and investment.
Over the past years, cooperation in economy,trade and investment has been growing unceasingly and become a major pillar inthe countries’ relations. However, although the trade revenue of 3.15 billionUSD in 2018 is an encouraging figure, it has yet to match the two sides’potential and expectation, according to Ty.
During the session, the officials spoke highlyof the two governments’ promotion of a meeting of the Inter-governmentalCommittee this year. They agreed to support the promotion of stronger linksbetween Vietnamese and Spanish businesses, and for organisation of the firstmeeting of the committee on economic, trade and investment cooperation soon.
The two sides also called for stronger ties in thefields that match both countries’ potential and demand like oil and gasexploitation, renewable energy, infrastructure building, tourism, hi-techagriculture, environmental protection and climate change response.
The host official added Spain has strength intourism, which makes up 15-20 percent of its GDP, noting that he hopes the twocountries will step up ties in this regard.
On this occasion, Vice Chairman Ty thanked Spainfor advocating the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment ProtectionAgreement (EVIPA), asking it to continue pushing for ratification of thesedeals.
Both sides shared the view that the earlyenforcement of the EVFTA and EVIPA will generate practical benefits forbusinesses and people of the two nations.
At the meeting, Ty also called on the countriesto keep close coordination at multilateral mechanisms, especially within theframework of the UN, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Vietnam-EUcooperation.
As a non-permanent member of the UN SecurityCouncil for 2020-2021, Chair of ASEAN in 2020 and Chair of the ASEANInter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) for 2019-2020, Vietnam is ready to workwith Spain and countries around the world to maintain peace, stability andsecurity and to bolster relations among regions around the world, he noted.
He also asked Spain to continue enhancing tiesin defence-security and personnel training to help Vietnam promote its defencecapacity, thus contributing to regional and global peace and stability.
Regardingparliamentary cooperation, both sides agreed to increase mutual visits and theexchange of information and experience, while coordinating with and supportingeach other at multilateral parliamentary forums of which Vietnam and Spain aremembers like the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-EuropeParliamentary Partnership (ASEP).
Vice Chairman Ty wishes the two parliaments will foster ties in supervising theimplementation of the two governments’ cooperation deals, and support thecountries’ governments, localities, businesses and people to boost mutualunderstanding and economic links./.
VNA
