Mongolia wants Vietnam to support its efforts to enhance ties with ASEAN and to join in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum.

This was mentioned at talks between Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Phu Trong and his Mongolian counterpart Demberel Damdin in Hanoi on Dec. 14, immediately after the official welcome ceremony.

The Mongolian leader said he felt honoured to visit and witness the immense achievements Vietnam had made in building and developing the country.

“The Mongolian State and people always highly value Vietnam ’s important role and position in Southeast Asia and wish to boost and expand their friendship and multi-dimensional cooperation with Vietnam ,” he said.

He emphasised the two law-making bodies’ important role in enhancing and promoting friendship and cooperation between Mongolia and Vietnam and suggested these bodies pay more attention to increasing bilateral cooperation in the fields of health, culture, information, education, mining, electricity and fisheries.

Demberel Damdin also delivered his country’s wish to learn from Vietnam ’s successes in attracting foreign investment.

For his part, NA Chairman Trong stressed that Vietnam has consistently attached importance to and wished to work together with Mongolia to promote their friendship and traditional cooperation.

He said he was delighted that besides the fine political ties, the two countries’ economic ties have been strengthened by relevant ministries and sectors, although they still remained modest.

Trong also spoke about potential for the Vietnamese and Mongolian law-making bodies to bolster their relations.

Trong suggested the two countries maintain high-level visits and contacts to promote mutual understanding and trust in order to elevate bilateral ties to a new height.

He also suggested relevant ministries, sectors and localities increase their exchange of visits and seek specific measures to step up their cooperation in a wide range of areas.

The NA leader said Vietnam and Mongolia share many similarities, and also have many competitive advantages to develop for mutual benefit. The two governments should continue to encourage and create favourable conditions for their enterprises to do business and raise the operation efficiency of the Inter-governmental Committee of the two countries, he said.

In addition, the two sides need to actively study the feasibility of exchange delegations for culture and arts and tourism cooperation, to enhance friendship and mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Chairman Trong also said that in the future, the two parliaments need to boost exchanges of delegations and friendship parliamentarians groups to share experiences in law making, supervision and strengthen the implementation of signed agreements between the two countries.

The Vietnamese NA leader urged the two parliaments to closely coordinate at regional and international inter-parliamentary fora, affirming that Vietnam supports and is ready to be a bridge for Mongolia to boost ties with other ASEAN countries and help it join APEC.

At the talks, the two parliamentary leaders informed each other about the situation in their respective countries and the activities of parliament as well as agreed on measures to bolster friendship and cooperation between the two countries and parliaments for peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

After the talks, Chairman Trong and Speaker Demberel Damdin signed a cooperation agreement between the two parliaments and witnessed the signing of cooperation deals between the two parliamentary offices and agriculture ministries of the two countries./.