Hanoi (VNA) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez left Ho Chi Minh City on April 10 afternoon, wrapping up his three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
During his stay in Vietnam, PM Sánchez paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum, and laid a wreath at the Monument to War Heroes and Martyrs on Bac Son street.
Party General Secretary To Lam and President Luong Cuong hosted receptions for PM Sánchez. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presided over a welcome ceremony, hold talks and a joint press conference, and witnessed the signing of cooperation documents between the two countries, as well as hosted a banquet in honour of PM Sánchez. National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man had a meeting with the Spanish guest.
At the meetings and talks, the Vietnamese leaders welcomed the visit by PM Sánchez and a high-level delegation of Spain, saying this marks the first trip to Vietnam by a head of the Spanish government since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1977.
They expressed confidence that the visit will open a new phase of development, elevating the Vietnam-Spain strategic partnership to a new height.
The Spanish PM affirmed that Vietnam is one of Spain's top priority partners in Southeast Asia, and agreed on the need to elevate the bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
To unlock the two countries' potential and strength and further deepen the bilateral relations, both sides agreed to increase high-level visits and contacts, and expand cooperation in defence and security, especially in training Vietnamese officers, defence industry, UN peacekeeping operations, settlement of war consequences, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, and combatting transnational crime and illegal migration.
They consented to effectively implement and capitalise on opportunities of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), further deepen cooperation in defence -security, culture, sports, and tourism, locality-to-locality collaboration, people-to-people exchanges, education and training, especially in high-quality human resources training in such fields as tourism, semiconductor industry, and science and technology.
The Vietnamese leaders thanked the Spanish PM for urging remaining EU member states to soon ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), and prompt the European Commission to remove its IUU yellow-card warning on Vietnamese seafood exports.
During the visit, both sides issued a joint statement on the results of PM Pedro Sánchez's official visit to Vietnam.
As part of the visit, PM Sánchez and the Spanish delegation also visited and had working sessions in Ho Chi Minh City./.
