State President holds talks with Greek counterpart

During their summit meeting, President Nguyen and his Greek counterpart Sakellaropoulou expressed their delight on the growth of Viet Nam-Greece ties and agreed on measures to promote bilateral ties.

President Sakellaropoulou spoke highly of Viet Nam's achievements throughout its struggle for national independence in the past and present process of socio-economic development. 

Greece highly valued the increasingly important role of Viet Nam in the region and the world, and hoped to foster cooperation with the Southeast Asian country in all fields.

Both sides agreed that the two countries should increase meetings and exchange of delegations at all levels between ministries, sectors and localities as well as the two business communities. 

The two Presidents agreed to task the two ministries of foreign affairs to review and speed up solutions to promote the bilateral partnership.

President Nguyen took this occasion to thank Greece for providing COVID-19 vaccines to Viet Nam, helping Viet Nam to become of the countries with highest vaccination rates in the world.

Both sides were glad to see that trade the two countries still increased to US$447 million in 2021, up 33 percent on year.

The pair agreed to promote the win-win partnership, while encouraging and creating favourable conditions for businesses from both nations to strengthen exchanges, focusing on areas of Viet Nam's demand and Greece's strengths such as shipbuilding, maritime logistics, energy and agriculture. 

In a bid to create a framework for bilateral economic cooperation, the Presidents agreed to step up negotiations for a double tax avoidance agreement and another on maritime transport.

The leaders pledged to beef up cooperation in other fields such as defence, security, culture, education, sports, tourism and people-to-people exchange. President Nguyen thanked Greek leaders and authorised agencies for having created favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to live, work and study in the country.

Both countries agreed to continue to strengthen collaboration at international and regional forums, especially in the settlement of non-traditional issues such as pandemics and climate change within the mechanisms of the United Nations, the Asia-Europe Meeting, and ASEAN-EU Cooperation.

President Sakellaropoulou said Greece supports Viet Nam in strengthening its partnership and comprehensive cooperation with the EU and further optimise the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), thus helping to enhance trade ties between Viet Nam and Greece.

Nguyen highly valued Greece’s ratification of the EU-Viet Nam Investment Promotion Agreement (EVIPA), and suggested that Greece support and call for the removal of the EU’s “yellow card” warning against Vietnamese seafood.

The two leaders also discussed international and regional issues of shared concern, including the maintenance of peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation on the basis of international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)./.