Vietnamese State President Truong Tan Sang left the Philippines on Oct. 28, concluding his three-day state-level visit to the island country.

Earlier on the day, President Sang received Secretary of Defence Voltaire Tuvera Gazmin. He highly valued the signing of a memorandum of understanding on enhancing cooperation and sharing of information between the naval forces of the two countries and an agreement on the establishment of a hotline between the Vietnam Marine Police and the Philippine Coast Guard.

President Sang asked the two sides to increase the exchange of military delegations at all levels and exchanges between servicemen to tighten mutual trust and understanding.

The two sides also need to share information and work with other ASEAN members to maintain peace, stability, marine security and safety in the East Sea; peacefully solve all disputes on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and expand cooperation to non-traditional security, he said.

The two sides affirmed that they would cooperate actively at regional security forums, including the East Asia Summit in November.

On the same day, President Sang hosted receptions for leaders of leading groups of the Philippines such as Liwayway, Jolibee , Philippines Airlines and UniLab.

The State President affirmed Vietnam ’s consistent policy of creating all favourable conditions for foreign companies, including those from the Philippines , to invest and do business in Vietnam .

He expressed his wish that the Philippine groups would continue to maintain and expand investment in Vietnam with commitments to protect the environment and create more jobs for local workers.

At the end of the President’s visit, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh granted an exclusive interview to the Vietnam News Agency about the visit’s significance and outcomes, saying that President Sang’s state-level visit to the Philippines was a success and reaped a number of important results.

“The President’s visit, together with the Vietnam visit by President Benigno S. Aquino III in October 2010, created a momentum and contributed to the development of bilateral relations after 35 years of establishing diplomatic ties,” Minh said.

President Sang and Philippine leaders agreed to continue bringing political relations to a new level with a more comprehensive, reliable and intensive manner.

On economic cooperation, the two sides pledged to create favourable conditions for enterprises and investors from the two countries to invest and do business in each other’s markets, in a move to lift two-way trade to 3 billion USD in 2016.

Regarding defence and security cooperation, the two sides highly valued the bilateral cooperation in this field as well as the signing of a memorandum of understanding on enhancing cooperation and sharing of information between the naval forces of the two countries and an agreement on the establishment of a hotline between the Vietnam Marine Police and the Philippine Coast Guard.

On marine and oceanic cooperation, the two sides agreed to consider it as one of the pillars in bilateral cooperation, the minister said.

President Sang affirmed that Vietnam supports and will closely coordinate with the Philippines and other ASEAN countries to study and realise the Philippines ’ initiative to turn the East Sea into a “Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation”.

In regard to cooperation in tourism, culture and education, the two sides emphasised the need to open a direct air route between the two capital cities soon with a view to stepping up tourism cooperation as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
On regional cooperation, the two sides affirmed to continue to work together and contribute to building an united and strong ASEAN Community as well as improve ASEAN’s central role in the region, the Minister said./.