Vietnam calls for stronger partnership in dealing with COVID-19 at 142nd IPU Assembly

It is necessary to continue to promote the partnership between the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) and regional parliamentary organisations and international organisations in preventing and settling crises or emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, National Assembly (NA) Standing Vice Chairman Tran Thanh Man has said.
Vietnam calls for stronger partnership in dealing with COVID-19 at 142nd IPU Assembly ảnh 1The Vietnamese delegation attending the 142nd IPU Assembly (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) –It is necessary to continue to promote the partnership between theInternational Parliamentary Union (IPU) and regional parliamentary organisationsand international organisations in preventing and settling crises or emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, National Assembly (NA) Standing Vice ChairmanTran Thanh Man has said.

Addressing the virtual opening of the 142nd IPU Assemblyon May 26 (Hanoi time), which is themed “Overcoming the pandemic today andbuilding a better tomorrow: the role of parliaments,” Man suggestedthat the IPU should call on countries with advantages in COVID-19 vaccineproduction to support developing and pandemic-hit countries to gain fair and timely access to vaccinesources and modern medical equipment atreasonable prices.

Besides, IPU member parliaments need to urgently completetheir national policies in responding to the pandemic, promptly allocate budgets and strengthen supervision over the accountability of the governments whileimplementing crisis settlement programmes to go through the pandemic, he said.

The Vietnamese representative also suggested the World Health Organisation(WHO) and countries foster their partnership and collaboration intransferring vaccine production technology and training to improv COVID-19 response capacity.

Noting that COVID-19 has posed adverse impacts tosocio-economic and politic situation, security and order in many countries acrossthe world, while causing difficulties and challenges in building a peaceful,green and prosperous globe, Man shared Vietnam’s strategy in coping with thepandemic.

He said that right from the first days COVID-19 enteredVietnam, the country has deployed drastic, synchronous and timely measures withthe engagement of the whole political system and the determination andconsensus of all residents.

Vietnam has implemented the “dual goals” of effectivelycontrolling the pandemic to ensure public health and recovering and boostingeconomic development at the same time, securing social welfare in the “newnormal”, said Man.

It has applied the 5K message which comprises khautrang (face masks), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distancing), khongtu tap (no gatherings), and khai bao y te (health declarations), he said,affirming that the country has basically put the pandemic under good control,ensuring stability and socio-economic development and winning confidence fromlocal residents and compliment from international friends.

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese NA has always accompanied the Government by promptly allocating budgets to pandemic response and issuingmeasures and policies supporting people and enterprises, while sharing itsexperience in dealing with COVID-19 at multilateral inter-parliamentary forumsand taking practical actions to show solidarity with parliaments of othercountries such as offering them masks and medical suppplies, said Man.

In his opening remark, IPU President Duarte Pacheco saidthat the official opening of an IPU Assembly is a time whenparliamentarians from around the world come together to share a common goal and commitment to inter-parliamentary dialogue and cooperation. This is also the moment when our values, ideas and aspirations converge into a strong impulse tostrengthen peace and representative democracy, he said.

More than 3 million people have lost their lives to theCOVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that together with a climate crisis and arecession on a scale not seen in nearly a century, the pandemic has reversedsome of the great progress made in human development. Decades of work has beenerased in a blink of an eye, and millions of people all over the world havefallen again into extreme poverty.

Access to vaccines is too fragmented, uneven and slow, hesaid, underlining that over 1.32 billion vaccine doses have been given topeople across the globe but much more needs to be done to bridge the wide gapsbetween vaccination programmes in different countries and regions.

The IPU President called on all countries to make the mostof the IPU, particularly in these troubled times.

This organisation has lived through many turbulent periodsin the past century but has always stood by its primary purpose of being theglobal organisation of national parliaments, where political dialogue, parliamentarydiplomacy and cooperation can fuel the solutions for a better tomorrow, hestated./.
VNA

See more

At the ceremony marking the handover of duties at the Party Central Committee’s Office on February 7 (Photo: VNA)

Party Central Committee’s Office welcomes new chief

Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the committee’s Inspection Commission Nguyen Duy Ngoc on February 7 handed over the duties of the Chief of the committee’s Office to Secretary of the Party Central Committee Le Hoai Trung.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (right) and Thai Ambassador Urawadee Sriphiromya. (Photo: VNA)

PM welcomes new ambassadors of Pakistan, Thailand

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted separate receptions in Hanoi on February 7 for Pakistani Ambassador Kohdayar Marri and Thai Ambassador Urawadee Sriphiromya, who recently took up their diplomatic posts in Vietnam.

Vietnamese President Luong Cuong (R) and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev at their meeting in Hanoi on November 25, 2024 (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam, Bulgaria enjoy thriving ties through more than seven decades

Building on this tradition, over the past more than seven decades, both countries have made continuous efforts to enhance and consolidate bilateral relations through regular exchanges of high-level delegations, the establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee and regular political consultations, the implementation of numerous agreements and cooperative programmes, and mutual support at international forums.

Delegates attend banquet to celebrate the 75th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and DPRK (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

75th anniversary of Vietnam-DPRK diplomatic relations marked in Hanoi

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said the Vietnam-DPRK traditional friendship, nurtured by President Ho Chi Minh and President Kim Il Sung, has overcome historical challenges and been continuously strengthened by generations of Vietnamese and DPRK leaders.

Deputy Minister of Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien (R) receives Colonel S. Muthukrishnan, Indian Defence Attaché in Vietnam, at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Hanoi on February 6. (Photo: qdnd.vn)

Vietnam, India enhance defence cooperation

The Deputy Minister suggested that both nations focus on implementing the exchange of delegations, especially high-level ones, and maintaining existing cooperation mechanisms, particularly in training programmes and defence industry collaboration.