Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario held talks in Manila , the Philippines , on Oct. 27 on the sidelines of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang’s State level visit.

The two ministers agreed to accelerate the implementation of agreements between the two sides to bring relations between the two countries to a new height.

They agreed that the newly-signed Vietnam-Philippines Action Programme for the 2011-2015 period will serve as an important basis for cooperation in all fields between the two countries.

The two ministers highly valued the results of the 6 th Vietnam-Philippines Bilateral Cooperation Committee, which was held in Hanoi on Oct. 6-7 and agreed to assign senior officials of the committee to speed up the preparations for their meeting in the Philippines next year.

Minister Albert del Rosario welcomed the lifting of cooperation exchange mechanism on sea and ocean to the deputy foreign ministerial and level proposed convening this committee in early 2012.

In terms of cooperation at regional and international forums, the two ministers affirmed to continue coordinating closely at the up-coming ASEAN summits and the East Asia Summit.

On the East Sea issue, the two ministers agreed that it is necessary to maintain peace, security, and maritime safety and freedom in the region, and to solve disputes by peaceful measures in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC)./.