Ambassador highlights significance of Prime Minister’s upcoming tour to China

The Vietnamese Prime Minister is expected to visit China from November 5-8 to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit and pay a working visit to China's Yunnan province and Chongqing city.

This is the GMS's first high-level meeting to be held in-person in the past six years due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Pham will also attend the 10th Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit and the 11th Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Viet Nam Cooperation Summit.

Pham's engagement at these summits reflects Viet Nam's commitment to sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, including the GMS cooperation. 

Pham is expected to put foward initiatives to strengthen GMS cooperation pillars, focusing on strengthening hard and soft infrastructure connectivity, responding to climate change, and sustainably managing water resources. 

As a founding member of the GMS, his participation also reflects Viet Nam's effective contributions to the realization of the subregion's shared goals and vision, shared the diplomat.

The tour is expected to help boost relations between localities of Viet Nam and neighboring countries. The GMS member countries share geographical proximity and convenient transport connectivity, making locality-to-locality cooperation a vital component of overall collaboration among them. A forum of governors of provinces along the GMS economic corridor will also be held on the sidelines of the 8th GMS Summit.

This year's GMS Summit, which brings together leaders of the GMS member countries (Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam), is expected to approve the summit's Joint Statement and the innovation strategy for GMS development by 2030, and acknowledge six key documents on investment, the environment and climate change, digitalisation, gender equality, health, and a framework on the digitisation of trade documents.

These important outcomes will serve as a new driving force for sub-regional cooperation in general and GMS collaboration in particular. The collective effort and determination to promote cooperation and development while addressing common challenges will strengthen solidarity and friendship between Viet Nam and its neighbours, and enhance the strategic role of the GMS in the regional integration process./.