Vice President delivers speech, holds bilateral meetings at CICA

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan delivers the speech at the event. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan delivered a speech at the plenary session of the sixth Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan on October 13, and engaged in bilateral meetings with some heads of delegations on the sidelines of the event.

In her speech, Vice President Xuan suggested that CICA should uphold the spirit of cooperation, action and responsibility to create a peaceful and stable environment for development in line with the UN Charter and international law, especially the principles of respect for independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of countries, and settlement of disputes by peaceful means without the use of or threat to use force.

CICA should actively engage in shaping and leading strong transformation trends of a new Asia, ensuring a rapid, sustainable and inclusive recovery and development process following the pandemic.

CICA needs to promote complementarity and interweaving between regional and inter-regional cooperation and linkage mechanisms in order to form an open, multi-centre, multi-tiered multilateral network, she said.

The Vietnamese Vice President highlighted ASEAN's efforts to maintain a peaceful and stable Southeast Asia region, ensure freedom of navigation and overflight, and settle disputes by peaceful means in line with the law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On the occasion, Xuan affirmed that with the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralisation and diversification of relations, always being a friend, a trustworthy partner and an active and responsible member of the international community, Vietnam is ready to join all efforts for dialogues, coordinated actions and trust building within the framework of CICA for the sake of peace, cooperation and development.

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo: VNA)

In a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xuan affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to its comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia.

She wished both countries would maintain and enhance effective cooperation, continue working closely to tackle difficulties in bilateral economic, trade and investment ties.

Putin stressed that Russia always considers Vietnam a top important partner in its foreign policy and agreed to deepen ties between the two nations in a practical and effective manner.

Meeting Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, Xuan said Vietnam consistently considers the consolidation and development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China a top priority in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification of ties.

Vietnam always wishes to constantly promote the relationship between the two Parties and countries with higher political trust, more practical cooperation and solid foundation for friendship, she said.

Wang, for his part, consented to continue with the exchange of delegations at all levels in the near future.

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan meets with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. (Photo: VNA)

Talking with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, Xuan expressed hope for practical cooperation activities toward the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Pakistan diplomatic ties and the 30th anniversary of Vietnam-Qatar diplomatic ties next year.

Leaders of Qatar and Pakistan said they wish to visit Vietnam soon, adding that there is a huge room to further expand bilateral links, especially in economy, trade and investment.

CICA is an inter-governmental forum initiated by Kazakhstan in 1992. It now has 28 member states, namely Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Republic of Korea, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, China, UAE, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Kuwait was admitted at CICA 6.

Since its entry to CICA in 2020, Vietnam has made active and responsible contributions to promoting dialogues, building trust within the framework of CICA and strengthened cooperation with member countries./.