Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung (Photo: VNA) They noted that last year, the two sides issued a jointstatement on the elevation of the bilateral strategic partnership to a higher levelin the next decade, as well as signing the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. Both officials expressed their belief that the bilateral ties will further develop in the time to come.
Dung congratulated the UK on its important achievementsin containing the COVID-19 pandemic, especially its leading the way in Europe and the worldin deploying COVID-19 vaccinations.
The official expressed his hope that the UK will shareexperience in vaccinations with Vietnam, and create more favourableconditions for the country in the next rounds of vaccine supply.
He held that the two sides should resume the exchange of delegations soon and effectively implement key cooperation mechanisms, including thestrategic dialogue on security-defence, thus creating new momentumfor the bilateral strategic partnership in the areas of politics-diplomacy, trade,investment, development cooperation, security-defence, culture, education,health care, science-technology, and people-to-people exchanges.
For his part, Adams congratulated Vietnam on successfullyperforming its role as ASEAN Chair in 2020 and thanked Vietnam for its support tothe UK in strengthening relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while lauding Vietnam’s role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021tenure and its efforts in responding to climate change and switching to green energy forsustainable development.
He affirmed that the UK will continue cooperating with Vietnamin multilateral frameworks and promote the observance of international law, includingthe UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 for peace and stability in theregion and the world.
The two sides also discussed a number of international andregional issues of shared concern, and agreed to work closelytogether in a bid to ensure the success of the United Nations Climate ChangeConference (COP26) which will be hosted by the UK in late 2021./.
