Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese Deputy Ministerof Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc and his Brazilian counterpart Eduardo PaesSaboia co-chaired the eighth deputy ministerial-level political consultationvia a videoconference on November 23.
Both sides shared the situation of each country, especiallyin the context that they are adopting measures to recover theeconomy and ensure social welfare following the pandemic.
Reviewing bilateral cooperation in the past, they alsodiscussed measures to deepen bilateral comprehensive partnership in the nearfuture.
They spoke highly of the strong development of bilateraleconomic ties, with Brazil being the biggest trade partner of Vietnam in the LatinAmerica and two-way trade hitting a record 6.36 billion USD.
Vietnam-Brazil economic and trade ties still have ample roomto grow further as Vietnam and member states of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur),including Brazil, are discussing the possibility of negotiating theVietnam-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, they said.
Thetwo sides highlighted the potential of cooperation in agriculture and renewableenergy, and pledged to contribute to global food security, energy security and climatechange response. They vowed to work closely together to maintain the momentumof bilateral relations by facilitating high-level visits and meetings, upholdingthe Joint Committee and Political Consultation mechanism, and expanding dialoguesand connection between ministries, agencies and businesses, thus graduallycompleting a legal framework to step up trade and investment collaboration, especiallyin farm produce.
Thetwo foreign ministries agreed to jointly accelerate negotiations towardssigning cooperation agreements in national defence, education, facilitation of investmentand technical cooperation.
On regional and global issues of shared concern,they promised to offer mutual support at international organisations andmultilateral forums of which Vietnam and Brazil are members, especially theUnited Nations, as well as enhance ASEAN-Brazil partnership./.