Vietnam and Singapore have agreed to expand and deepened their relationship in the interest of the two countries’ people, and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reached agreement at their meeting on Sept. 28, the last day of Sang’s State visit to the island nation.

PM Lee Hsien Loong spoke highly of Sang’s choice of Singapore as the first nation to visit after he took office, saying he believed that the visit will mark a milestone in relations between the two countries.

The PM highly valued Vietnam ’s recent achievements, especially in maintaining political stability and economic growth.

The two leaders expressed their pleasure at the dynamic and comprehensive friendship, cooperation and mutual trust between the two nations.

Both spoke highly of the rapid and strong development of bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.

They agreed to accelerate the implementation of the framework agreement on Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity and expand Vietnam-Singapore industrial parks, while strengthening cooperation in areas such as national defence, security, tourism, culture and education.

President Sang said Singapore has been one of the leading investment and trade partners of Vietnam , with two-way trade reaching 6.2 billion USD in 2010. Singapore now has 938 projects in Vietnam , with a combined registered capital of nearly 23 billion USD.

The two leaders praised ASEAN’s important role in promoting regional peace, stability and cooperation and committed to coordinating with other member countries of the bloc to speed up the building of an ASEAN Community by 2015.

Regarding the East Sea , both shared the same view on ensuring peace, stability and maritime safety in the East Sea on the basis of respecting international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They welcomed ASEAN and China ’s adoption of guidelines for the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and underlined the need to promptly build the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC).

PM Lee Hsien Loong also affirmed that Singapore will continue assisting and cooperating with Vietnam in its negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement .

The same day, President Sang attended the inauguration of Uncle Ho’s statue at the Asian Civilisations Museum .

After the meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, President Sang left Singapore to begin his three-day state visit to Malaysia./.