Party leader meets top British legislators in London

At the meeting with Speaker of the UK House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle, the General Secretary affirmed that the Party, State, and National Assembly of Viet Nam always attach great importance to developing the traditional friendship with the UK, in which the parliamentary channel plays a practical role in promoting and overseeing the implementation of intergovernmental agreements, as well as in deepening mutual understanding and trust.

He called on the House of Commons continue to oversee and promote the implementation of cooperation agreements between the two governments, including the UK–Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and programs on education and training cooperation, scientific research, innovation, and human resources development.

He recommended the House of Commons continue allocating resources for development collaboration with Viet Nam, especially in the areas of clean energy, climate change response, and public health and support the negotiation and signing of a bilateral labor cooperation agreement, thus creating a legal framework for Vietnamese citizens with legitimate aspirations to work legally in the country.

Speaker Hoyle emphasized that the Vietnamese Party leader's UK visit marks the beginning of a new phase of cooperation, carrying historical significance in bilateral relations across all fields, especially in parliamentary cooperation.

The House of Commons supports the UK Government in strengthening cooperation with Viet Nam, particularly in areas of the UK's strengths such as education and training, healthcare, and climate change response, while showing his wish to further promote people-to-people exchanges, he underlined.

The two leaders vowed to continue enhancing cooperation between the two parliaments through the regular exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones as well as stepping up the sharing of legislative experience and the improvement of the legal framework to facilitate the expansion of bilateral ties.

Both sides also discussed strengthening coordination at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), as well as within regional parliamentary cooperation mechanisms.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the top Vietnamese leader suggested the UK Parliament continue to maintain an objective and balanced stance, and support ASEAN's position of solving disputes by peaceful means, based on international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

During the meeting with Speaker of the UK House of Lords John McFall (Baron McFall of Alcluith), the Vietnamese Party chief recommended that the House of Lords would continue to support the expansion of cooperation between the two parliaments, governments, and the two countries' localities, particularly in fields where the UK has strengths such as finance, science and technology, education and training, security and defense, and climate change response.

He stressed the need to further promote bilateral education and training initiatives, especially under the Chevening and Newton scholarship programs, as well as university and vocational training partnerships.

He encouraged British educational institutions to expand branches and training links in Viet Nam, helping develop high-quality human resources to serve economic growth and digital transformation in the new era.

Speaker McFall reiterated that the UK attaches great importance to strengthening ties with Viet Nam and stands ready to work closely with Viet Nam to deepen cooperation across various areas, particularly education and training, and defense.

He affirmed that the House of Lords will continue to support the British Government's cooperation with Viet Nam and experience sharing in law-making.

Both leaders underscored the important role of the two parliaments in monitoring the effective implementation of bilateral cooperation agreements.

They agreed to maintain regular exchanges of delegations, especially at high levels, boost cooperation between parliamentary committees, and share experience in legislation, policy oversight, and academic exchanges to further strengthen parliamentary ties./.