Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau at their meeting in Hanoi on March 16. (Photo: VNA) The PM thanked the Government and people of Poland for their donation of nearly 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 8 tonnesof medical equipment to help Vietnam overcome the pandemic and boost economic recovery, stressed that the move reflected sincere affection and deep attachment between the people of the two countries.
For his part, Rau said he is impressed with Vietnam’ssocio-economic development achievements and stated that Poland wants to fortifyits collaboration with the nation, the most important partner of Poland in SoutheastAsia.
Regarding the Vietnam-Poland relationship, PM Chinh expressedhis pleasure to see its positive progress over the past time and suggested the two sides increase the exchange of delegations, especially high-level ones and between sectors and localities, to boost political trust and mutual understanding,forming a basis for their bilateral cooperation expansion across all fields.
Poland has been Vietnam’s biggest trade partner in CentralEastern Europe for years and the two countries’ economic and trade cooperation maintainsa strong growth momentum despite COVID-19, the Government leader said, adding that bilateral trade stood at a high level in 2021 and 2022, over 2.5 billion USD.
PM Chinh recommended Poland to create favourable conditions forVietnam's agro-forestry-aquatic products to penetrate deeper into thePolish market; and encourage Polish businesses to step up investment in Vietnam’spharmaceuticals, food processing, and manufacturing industries.
He proposed the European nation soon ratify the EU-VietnamInvestment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) to facilitate equal and mutuallybeneficial investment cooperation between the two countries; and urge theEuropean Commission (EC) to soon remove its yellow card warning on Vietnam's seafood exports,meeting the interests of Polish and EU consumers and ensuring livelihoods forhundreds of thousands of workers in the Vietnamese fishing industry.
The host and guest exchanged views on a number of measuresto beef up cooperation in education-training, culture-tourism, agriculture, andscience-technology.
Rau pledged to encourage Polish ministries and branches tocoordinate with the Vietnamese side to concretise the PM’s recommendations,contributing to making the bilateral cooperation more practical and effective.
He expressed his desire to strengthen the bilateral partnership in areas where Poland has strengths such as IT, smart cities building, greentechnology, and environmental protection.
At the event (Photo: VNA) Regarding the East Sea issue, they emphasised the importanceof ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in theEast Sea as well as settling disputes by peaceful means on the basis ofinternational law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea (UNCLOS).
PM Chinh thanked the Polish Government’s support for Vietnameseexpatriates in Poland as well as Vietnamese people in Ukraine who evacuated to thecountry. He proposed Poland further create favourable conditions for the expatriate community tostabilise their lives and make practical and effective contributions to the finetraditional friendship between Vietnam and Poland.
On this occasion, Rau conveyed Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki’sinvitation to PM Chinh to pay an official visit to Poland soon. TheVietnamese leader said he will arrange a trip to Poland at an appropriate time./.
VNA
