Prime Minister meets leaders from Palau, Solomon Islands in Nice

The meetings were held on the sidelines of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference.

At the meeting with the President of Palau, Pham reiterated that Viet Nam always values its relations with Pacific countries, including Palau, expressing his wish to deepen and enhance the relationship with Palau towards a substantive, effective, and comprehensive manner across all areas.

To create a breakthrough in the bilateral relations in the coming time, the two leaders vowed to instruct their relevant agencies to explore the possibility of negotiating and signing cooperation agreements in the areas of fisheries, labor cooperation, and visa exemption for their citizens to expand collaboration and enhance people-to-people exchanges.

Both sides pledged to strengthen coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums and issues of shared interest, such as climate change, sea level rise, and protection of marine resources.

During the meeting with the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Pham emphasized that with the policy of being a friend, a reliable partner, and a responsible member of the international community, Viet Nam hopes to promote friendship and cooperation with Pacific countries, including the Solomon Islands.

Viet Nam stands ready to support the Solomon Islands in human resource training and share experiences in socio-economic development, noted Pham.

The Vietnamese leader asserted Viet Nam's commitment to implementing the Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) on conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources, and shared the country's experience in managing and protecting fishery resources.

Manele, for his part, expressed his hope to visit Viet Nam soon to learn from its development experience, especially as the Solomon Islands aims to "graduate" from the group of least developed countries.

He emphasized that Viet Nam is a very important market for Solomon in terms of trade and tourism, called for investment from Vietnamese businesses, and pledged to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese investors.

Manele vowed to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two nations and consider waiving visas for Vietnamese citizens. He expected Viet Nam would send a delegation to attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting hosted by Solomon Islands this year.

The two leaders underlined the need to enhance politic and diplomatic ties via all-level delegation exchanges and expand cooperation in areas such as economy, trade and investment, agriculture, aquaculture, education, and tourism.

They pledged to promote collaboration in areas of mutual interest, particularly marine environmental protection and sustainable development.

On this occasion, the two leaders also exchanged views on several international and regional issues of mutual concern, agreed to enhance coordination at regional and international forums, and voiced support for each other's candidacies at international organizations.

This is the first time in many years that senior leaders of the two countries have had a direct meeting./.