Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong. (Photo: VNA) Singapore (VNA) – The Vietnam-Singapore relationshipis now at its prime with deep political trust, close economic and investment cooperation, and strong people-to-people exchange, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore MaiPhuoc Dung has said.
In an interview recently granted to the Vietnam News Agency on theoccasion of the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties thisyear, the diplomat said since 2020, Singapore has always been among the biggestforeign investors in Vietnam with a stable two-way trade despite the globalpolitical-economic troubles.
Thetwo countries have also regularly facilitated the exchange of high-rankingdelegations and signed a bilateral defence cooperation agreement to pave theway for specific cooperation programmes. They have been working effectivelytogether in new security fields such as cyber security and trans-border crimeprevention, toward stepping up collaboration in pillar and promising areas suchas green economy,digital economy, digital transformation, and cyber security.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Mai Phuoc Dung. (Photo: VNA) Sincethe second half of last year, the two Governments and foreign ministries haveheld activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic tiesand the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership between the twonations, which draw the attention of the public and businesses.
Apartfrom visits by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in February and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong later this year, Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son in July and Singaporean Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng in July, a number of activities arealso scheduled, including the Spotlight Vietnam to be held by Singapore’s Global CulturalAlliance in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in October with about 200 Singaporeanentrepreneurs and athletes expected to take part, and the Vietnam Night held by the SingaporeBook Council under the auspices of the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamesecommunity in Singapore.
In the coming time, the Vietnamese embassy plans to work with relevant agenciesto popularise Vietnamese goods and tourism in the island state.
Commentingon the potential joint work at multilateral forums, Dung said both Vietnamand Singapore are members of various multilateral mechanisms, particularlythose within the framework of the United Nations and the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Both countries basically share the same stanceon international issues and work towards building regional and global order inaccordance with international law and global standards.
He suggested thatthe two nations should affirm the supreme roleof international law in building regional and international order. Every actionof nations in international relations must comply with the basic principles andprovisions of international law.
Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Theyshould also strive to ensure the unity and centrality of ASEAN in regionalsecurity issues, as well as contribute to shaping multilateral economiccooperation mechanisms, especially new multilateral agreements such as theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), based on opennessand inclusiveness, for the sake of peace, stability and mutual benefits, hesaid.
In order to furtherdeepen bilateral ties, Dung said he hopes that the two countries will focus on concrete tasks, such as effectively continuing to carry out existing mechanisms,especially the annual political consultation to discuss global and bilateral issues where differences still exist, thus avoidingunnecessary misunderstandings.
Besidesfields of strength and shared vision, he proposed bolstering cooperation in greeneconomy and digital economy, materialising the Memorandum of Understanding on theGreen-Digital Economic Partnership reached during PM Pham Minh Chinh’s visit toSingapore earlier this year, and joint work in sci-tech and renewable energy.
Inpolitics, he suggested focusing on cooperation in human resources training andadministrative reform in a modern and effective manner, and coordinating stances onregional and global issues, especially those directly impacting Vietnam andSingapore.
Innational defence-security, he called for sharing information on cyber and transnationalcrimes, conducting pilot studies on sharing basic citizen data to facilitatethe movement of citizens of both countries and ensure national security. Furtherattention should be also paid to people-to-people exchanges to raise mutualunderstanding of each other.
At present, thereare about 20,000 Vietnamese living, studyingand working in Singapore, half of them students. Overthe past years, they have served as a bridge to popularise the Vietnameseculture and further reinforce ties between the two nations, the diplomatsaid./.
