French defense minister highly values Viet Nam’s independence, self-reliance

Pham spoke highly of Lecornu's ongoing visit, which would help boost the strategic partnership between the two countries and reflect both sides' effort to shelf the past, overcome differences, promote similarities and look towards the future.

The Prime Minister took the occasion to brief the guest about Viet Nam's development strategies, including its "four nos" defense policy: no partaking in military alliances, no siding with one country to act against another, no foreign military bases in the Vietnamese territory or using Viet Nam as leverage to counteract other countries, and no using force or threatening to use force in international relations.

Viet Nam greatly treasures peace, cooperation and development as it had experienced pains, sacrifices and losses caused by wars, divisions, embargoes in the previous century, said Pham.

He asked the French defense minister to convey Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's invitation to invite President Emmanuel Macron to visit Viet Nam. He also expressed his wish that French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal would visit Viet Nam soon.

Pham spoke highly of the outcomes of the talks between Lecornu and Vietnamese Minister of National Defense Phan Van Giang, emphasizing that defense cooperation is an important pillar of the Viet Nam-Friend strategic partnership. France was the first Western country to establish defense ties with Viet Nam.

He suggested the two countries continue stepping up the exchange of delegations, particularly high-level ones, and prepare well for President Macron's upcoming visit to Viet Nam.

Pham also called for strengthening connectivity between the two economies, cooperation between the sides' ministries, agencies and localities, as well as cooperation in such fields like climate change, energy transition, digital economy, green economy, circular economy.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister asked the French side to urge the EU countries to soon ratify the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), and the EC to soon remove "yellow card" against Viet Nam's seafood exports based on recognition of its efforts in combating illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU).

In the defense sector, the Prime Minister urged both sides to effectively implement the signed agreements and set up new cooperation mechanisms for such areas like information and experience sharing, human resource training, peace-keeping operation, overcoming of war consequences, bomb and mine clearance among others.

For his part, Lecornu underlined that France attaches importance to the relations with Viet Nam and highly values Viet Nam's strong independence and self-reliance.

He said President Macron's upcoming visit aims to foster cooperation with Viet Nam in a practical manner.

On the occasion, both sides compared notes on regional and international issues of shared concern, underscoring the importance of maintaining peace, security, stability, freedom of navigation and aviation, settling disputes through peaceful measures in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and working toward formulation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC)./.