Vietnam, Bangladesh organise second political consultation

Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet and his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen co-chaired the second Vietnam-Bangladesh political consultation in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on May 14.

The two sides briefed each other on the situation, strategies and socio-economic development orientations of each country, discussed measures to promote bilateral cooperation in all fields and compared views on regional and international issues of shared concern.

They agreed to coordinate with each other in building a long-term vision for the bilateral relations, while increasing the exchange of delegations at all levels, strengthening existing cooperation mechanisms, and considering the resumption and upgrade of the Joint Committee on economic, cultural and science-technology cooperation.

The two sides reached consensus on strengthening collaboration in defence-security, economy-trade-investment, education, fisheries and breeding, while promoting exchange in culture and tourism.

They pledged to urge relevant ministries and sectors to review and extend their cooperation agreements, including MoUs on rice trading, fisheries and breeding, tourism cooperation, machinery manufacturing, and cultural exchange in new period, and sign new ones such as a MoU on IT cooperation and another on trade promotion.

The two sides highlighted the great potential in bilateral economic cooperation with Bangladesh currently the second largest trade partner of Vietnam in South Asia. Two-way trade rose four times in 10 years from about 350 million USD in 2012 to 1.5 billion USD in 2022, and is moving towards the goal of 2 billion USD set by their leaders.

The two countries will encourage ministries, sectors and businesses to strengthen trade promotion activities to explore each other’s market as well as potential products and areas for cooperation, while speeding up the launching of a direct air route between the two countries.

The Bangladeshi side proposed that Vietnam consider investment in industrial parks and software technology parks of Bangladesh, pledging to provide attractive incentives to Vietnamese investors. The country welcomed Vietnam’s increased export of strong products to Bangladesh such as agricultural machineries, materials, home appliances, electronic products, and processed agro-fisheries products.

At the event, Vietnam and Bangladesh also discussed regional and international issues of shared concern, including those related to climate change, natural disaster management and mitigation, water resources and energy security, and migration.

They hailed the central role of the ASEAN in settling matters in the region. Bangladesh affirmed that it wants to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN and is actively rolling out practical collaboration activities to speed up the process of becoming a dialogue partner of the association in particular areas.

The two sides agreed to strengthen coordination at regional and international forum, while supporting each other’s candidacies, and share viewpoints and stances at development countries’ forums such as the Non-Aligned Movement, and South-South Cooperation, thus strengthening the voice, solidarity and self-reliance of regional countries.

Earlier on May 13, Deputy FM Viet paid a courtesy call to Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, who expressed delight at the resumption of bilateral political consultation after six years of interruption. He emphasised that amid many regional and international challenges, Vietnam and Bangladesh need to strengthen cooperation, and lift up their relations to a new height in the coming time, while coordinating more closely, strengthening mutual support in and making positive contributions to common regional and international issues./.