NA Chairman meets top foreign legislators on sidelines of 152nd IPU Assembly

At the meeting with IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong, Tran suggested the IPU support Viet Nam's legislature in enhancing its lawmaking and supervision capacity, while enabling deeper engagement in IPU mechanisms and future hosting of regional and global parliamentary events.

He underscored the need to foster parliamentary cooperation in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, green transition, and sustainable development.

Tran stressed Viet Nam's interest in closer engagement with IPU platforms and capacity-building initiatives, particularly in improving legislative quality and supervisory effectiveness.

Chungong, for his part, welcomed Viet Nam's strong commitment to the IPU and its high-level participation at IPU-152.

The Secretary-General praised Viet Nam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, self-strengthening, and diversification and multilateralization, as well as the Vietnamese NA's proactive and responsible engagement in inter-parliamentary cooperation, including within the IPU.

During the meeting with Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly Valentina Matviyenko, the top Vietnamese legislator affirmed Russia is a reliable partner, and that developing the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia is one of the top priorities in Viet Nam's foreign policy.

He proposed that both sides deepen political and diplomatic connections, as well as parliamentary cooperation, through delegation exchanges, high-level meetings through various channels.

For her part, Matviyenko described Viet Nam as Russia's most reliable partner in Southeast Asia and voicing delight at the elevation of ties to a new level.

She stated that the Russian parliament will continue to make positive contributions to reinforcing relations between the two countries.

Besides the strategic areas of cooperation, Matviyenko suggested the two sides step up collaboration in energy – oil and gas, and nuclear power while also paying due attention to humanistic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, education and training, tourism, and cultural ties to enhance mutual understanding between their peoples.

Meeting with Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Numan Kurtulmus, Tran proposed the two sides further open their markets and consider the early signing of a sustainable and balanced free trade agreement (FTA), facilitating market access for each country's key export products while reducing trade barriers.

Kurtulmus suggested expanding cooperation in areas of mutual strength and potential such as defense industry, logistics, and air and maritime connectivity.

The two leaders agreed to enhance parliamentary cooperation through promoting all-level delegation exchanges, closer engagement between friendship parliamentary groups, and sharing of legislative and supervision experiences to create a favorable legal framework for bilateral collaboration, thus further deepening the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between Viet Nam and Türkiye.

They also pledged to coordinate closely at parliamentary forums and other multilateral forums and organizations, step up the exchange of views, and support each other's candidacies, particularly at the United Nations and related organizations.

During his meeting with President of the Belgian Senate Vincent Blondel, Tran suggested Belgium continue supporting and accompanying Vietnam in the next development period by expanding all-round collaboration, especially in areas matching Belgium's strengths and Viet Nam's demand, including science – technology, seaports, logistics, semiconductors, green agriculture, climate change adaptation, and saltwater intrusion prevention.

The NA leader also called on Belgium to advocate the EU's removal of the "yellow card" warning related to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing against Vietnamese seafood, and further develop energy cooperation.

Blondel voiced interest in enhancing economic ties, advancing the strategic partnership in agriculture, and boosting cooperation in both traditional and emerging strategic sectors.

He also welcomed the stride in visa procedure exemption for European tourists, including Belgians, travelling to Viet Nam./.