Vietnamese, Chilean Presidents hold talks

The Chilean leader hailed the significance of the President Luong's official visit, the first by a Vietnamese State leader over the past 15 years, expressing his hope that the visit will help deepen the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries.

Chile always treasures and wishes to promote the relations with Viet Nam in its policy towards the Asia-Pacific, especially in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 10th-year implementation of their bilateral free trade agreement, and both sides are signatories to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Boric said.

President Luong, for his part, reiterated that Viet Nam attaches importance to its traditional friendship and comprehensive partnership with Chile - the first South American country establishing diplomatic relations with Viet Nam (March 25, 1971).

The two leaders expressed their delight at the fruitful development in the bilateral ties thanks to the maintenance of high-level mutual visits and meetings between their Parties, States, parliaments, and localities, as well as the effective implementation of existing cooperation mechanisms such as the free trade council and the political consultation at the Deputy Foreign Minister level.

Bilateral trade has been consolidated amid many global economic challenges. Chile is the fourth largest trading partner of Viet Nam in Latin America while Viet Nam is Chile's biggest trading partner in ASEAN.

The two leaders hailed Viet Nam's official establishment of a defense attaché office in Chile, which is expected to further enhance defense cooperation between the two countries in the coming period.

They spoke highly of the two countries' close and effective cooperation at international organizations and inter-regional forums, especially the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), and the ASEAN-Pacific Alliance cooperation.

Both sides pledged to foster collaboration in the fields of free trade, agriculture, sustainable development, renewable energy, science, education, tourism, defense, and security.

The leaders agreed that both countries should actively negotiate and sign bilateral cooperation documents to perfect the legal framework for their relations to grow sustainably, while facilitating their businesses to soon raise bilateral trade on par with the countries' potential, the leaders underlined.

They vowed to enhance cooperation, and mutual support at international organizations along with multilateral and inter-regional forums.

The host and the guest occurred to assign Vietnamese and Chilean ministries and sectors to consider upgrading the framework of their bilateral relations in the near future to create more opportunities for cooperation.

Regarding the East Sea issue, they held that sovereignty and territorial disputes must be resolved by peaceful means in accordance with international law, especially the UN Charter and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Luong took the occasion to invite the Chilean President to visit Viet Nam in the near future. Boric accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Following the talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of a Viet Nam-Chile Joint Statement, a Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation between the two defense ministries, and some cooperation documents in the fields of agriculture, culture, and trade promotion./.