Increased cooperation between Vietnamese and Indonesian legislative bodies will contribute to the development of a comprehensive relationship between the two countries in the twenty-first century.

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong stated this on April 8 at a meeting with the Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives Alie Abdul Majid, who is currently visiting Vietnam for the ASEAN-AIPA (ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly) meeting as part of the 16 th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi .

Vietnam’s leading legislator agreed with his guest on stepping up collaboration between ASEAN and the AIPA and improving the AIPA’s role and position in the region as well as in international forums.

He said he hoped that Indonesia, as a founder of the AIPA and ASEAN, will share its experiences and back Vietnam as chair of AIPA and ASEAN in 2010.

He also requested that both countries put into action previously signed agreements between Vietnam and Indonesia during his recent visit to the country.

Vietnam attaches great importance to consolidating and developing its traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Indonesia, a partner that plays an important role in the region and the world, said Trong.

The Indonesia Speaker said the AIPA-ASEAN leaders’ meeting will help to increase the AIPA’s contributions to the building of the ASEAN Community by 2015 based on the three pillars of politics-security, economics and socio-culture.

The two top legislators discussed measures to increase exchanges and cooperation between the two legislative bodies as well as investment between the two countries.

They agreed to enhance exchanges between various ministries and state agencies and talked about a cooperative agreement on fishing./.