THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM
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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets Spanish counterpart in Nice
VGP – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez on the margin of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France on June 9.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez on the margin of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, June 9, 2025
Pham expressed his pleasure to meet Sanchez again following their summit meeting in Ha Noi last April.
He conveyed the warm regards from General Secretary To Lam, President Luong Cuong and Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man to Spain's senior leaders.
Viet Nam attaches great importance to further strengthening multi-faceted cooperation with Spain – the first EU member country to have established strategic partnership with Viet Nam.
The two leaders discussed major orientations to concretize the outcomes of Sanchez's recent official visit to Viet Nam in order to deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Both sides affirmed that economic, trade and investment cooperation is a vital pillar of the bilateral relations and agreed to work together to effectively implement the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Protocol on bilateral financial cooperation.
The two leaders agreed to soon convene the first session of the Joint Committee for economic, trade and investment cooperation in 2025 to discuss ways to raise the two-way trade to US$8 billion in the time to come.
Pham sugggested Spain push for early ratification of the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) by the European Parliament and for the removal of the EC's yellow card warning against Vietnamese seafood exports.
He also asked Spain to transfer technologies to and help Viet Nam train workforce for the development of railway industry.
Sanchez said his country wishes to bolster cooperation with Viet Nam and stands ready to share its experience in high-speed railway development.
He invited Prime Minister Pham to attend the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development scheduled to take place in Sevilla, Spain in June this year.
On the occasion, the two leaders exchanged views on promoting the UN-led agenda on sustainable development, conservation of marine biodiversity, global governance and security.
They affirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, freedom of navigation and aviation at seas, including the East Sea on the basis of respect for littoral countries in line with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea./.