Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and his Malaysian counterpart Anifah Aman held talks in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 8 as part of the Vietnamese FM’s two-day visit to Malaysia .

The two FMs spoke highly of the development of friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries and agreed to boost the exchange of high-level visits in the coming time.

Minister Anifah Aman valued the visit to Malaysia by State President Truong Tan Sang last September and said that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will visit Vietnam this year.

The two sides also agreed to maintain current mechanism of bilateral cooperation and work out plans and measures to increase bilateral trade to 10 billion USD.

On cooperation in national defence and security, the two sides hailed the enhancement of cooperation in fighting trans-national crimes.

On labour, the Malaysian side said that their government is implementing a programme on management of foreign workers, encouraging Vietnamese workers to participate in this programme to have legal working conditions and more effective working results.

On fishermen and fishing, the two sides agreed that it is necessary to set up a cooperation mechanism, which is suitable with the benefits of both sides.

Regarding regional and international issues of common concern, the two sides agreed to coordinate and cooperate with other ASEAN countries in building a united and strong ASEAN Community in 2015 when Malaysia will assume the role as ASEAN Chair.

The two sides emphasised the importance of ensuring peace, stability, maritime security, safety and freedom in the East Sea and solving disputes through peaceful solutions in line with international laws, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards the building of a Code of Conduct (COC).

They highly valued the results of the 3 rd session on Malaysia-Thailand-Vietnam Overlapping Continental Shelf Claim Area, which took place on January 15-18./.