Sweden stands ready to support Viet Nam to become developed, high-income country

Norlén made the above statement during his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Stockholm on June 12.

Norlén expressed his belief that Pham's ongoing visit to Sweden would help deepen the traditional friendship and cooperation between the two countries in the time to come.

Pham, for his part, conveyed the greetings from General Secretary To Lam, President Luong Cuong, and Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man to Norlén and other senior Swedish leaders.

He reassured that Viet Nam always attaches importance and wishes to strengthen the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Sweden.

He recalled the image of Prime Minister Olof Palme marching with a torch to protest the war in VIet Nam, emphasizing that Sweden's decision to establish diplomatic relations with Viet Nam was a brave decision grounded in justice and conscience.

The Party, State and people of Viet Nam always bear in mind Sweden’s noble gesture in providing around US$3 billion in non-refundable aid for Viet Nam, the largest among Nordic countries, Pham noted.

Sweden's aid was used meaningfully to support health care, education, and social welfare, with many symbolic projects such as the National Children's Hospital and the Bai Bang Paper Mill, Pham said.

Swedish universities have trained around 200 Vietnamese experts while that people-to-people exchanges have formed a natural bond, emphasized the Vietnamese leader.

He said that his visit to Sweden will inject momentum to the bilateral ties and to the relations between ASEAN and the EU.

In the context of profound, complex and unpredictable development around the world, the two leaderes agreed that Viet Nam and Sweden need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation in a bid to contribute to promoting multilateralism and international solidarity.

He called on Swedish enterprises to expand investment in the fields like artificial intelligence, information and communication technology, semiconductor.

He also suggested Swedish parliament to push for the ratification of the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) by the remaining EU member countries and for the removal of EC's yellow card warning against Vietnamese seafood exports.

Norlén said bilateral relations have developed fruitfully, including dialogue and cooperation between the two legislatures, and affirmed Sweden’s readiness to help Viet Nam fulfill its goal of becoming a high-income developed country by its centenary in 2045.

The leaders also exchanged views on regional and international issues of shared concern, including the East Sea. Both sides reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, and freedom of navigation and overflight, based on respect for the rule of law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They underscored the need to settle disputes peacefully in accordance with international law, without the use or threat of force.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham conveyed the invitation from National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to Speaker Norlén to visit Viet Nam. The Swedish leader accepted the invitation with pleasure./.