President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Photo: VNA) During his stay in Vietnam, President Museveni paid tribute to late PresidentHo Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi, held talks with his Vietnamesecounterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and paid courtesy visits to Party GeneralSecretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
He also visited the FPT Corporation, Vietnam’s leading IT firm, and the VietnamAcademy of Agricultural Sciences, and attended the Vietnam-Uganda BusinessForum.
Receiving President Museveni, who is also Chairman of the National ResistanceMovement (NRM) Party, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong stressed thesignificance of his Vietnam visit, saying it would open up a new developmentperiod for the ties between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the NRMand the two countries, especially in the context of the two countries workingtowards the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties next year.
Trong said that Vietnam attaches importance to promoting its relations withAfrican nations in general and Uganda in particular, adding that huge spacestill remains for Vietnam and Uganda to boost their cooperation in all spheres.
During his meeting with President Museveni, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh saidto boost the economic ties, Vietnam and Uganda need to step up trade andinvestment promotion activities, thereby facilitating the penetration of goodsinto the East African market and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) as well.
The PM suggested the two countries continue their mutual support atmultilateral forums, especially at the time when Uganda assumes the NAMChairmanship for 2023-2026.
At the their talks, President Phuc and President Museveni welcomed positivedevelopment of bilateral relations, with political-diplomatic ties maintained,and economic cooperation achieving encouraging results. Two-way trade reached14.3 million USD last year, up 39.8% year-on-year.
Affirming that there remains ample room for bilateral cooperation, they agreedon specific orientations to further boost the ties.
They highlighted the importance of stepping up delegation exchanges andcontacts in all channels, and maintaining coordination and mutual support atmultilateral forums, particularly the UN and the NAM.
Both asserted their determination to foster economic cooperation and increasetwo-way trade to be commensurate with the fine political relationship and themarket scale of nearly 150 million people of the two nations.
The two leaders also emphasised the importance of agricultural cooperation,considering it one of the pillars of bilateral relations, with priority givento ensuring food security; and agreed to expand collaboration toeducation-training, information and communications, defence-security, healthand tourism.
After their talks, the Presidents witnessed the signing of an agreement on visaexemption for diplomatic and official passport holders; and four memoranda ofunderstanding on cooperation in diplomacy, education, information andcommunications, and agriculture technology./.
VNA
