Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has confirmed that relationship with Vietnam are working well and said he was looking forward to enhancing relations and cooperation with the Southeast Asian country.

Bilateral relations will become stronger in the coming years, he added.

When talking to a Vietnam News Agency reporter on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings in Hanoi on July 23, Cannon said that the relationship the two countries enjoy has many advantages. Currently, Canada is increasing its tr ade, commercial relations and political presence in Southeast Asia .

He said that there are 250,000 Vietnamese Canadians out of the one million immigrants from Southeast Asian nations who now live in Canada .

The FM praised Vietnam ’s role as ASEAN chair and said that he is pleased with the way Vietnam has facilitated the association’s activities.

He also confirmed Vietnam ’s contributions as a member of ASEAN, to speed up the process that helped Canada to become a partner to the treaty of amity and cooperation (TAC).

Cannon is leading the Canadian delegation at the ASEAN-Canada Foreign Ministerial Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

At the ASEAN-Canada Ministerial Meeting, both parties ratified an action plan to carry out a declaration to strengthen the ASEAN-Canada partnership during the 2011-2015 period and agreed to put together an ASEAN-Canada Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to boost trade and investment.

A document recognising Canada ’s accession to the TAC was signed in Hanoi on July 23, marking an important development in ASEAN-Canada dialogue as well as Canada ’s commitment to regional peace, stability and cooperation./.