Viet Nam, Canada agree to foster medical cooperation
VGP – Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau agreed to foster healthcare cooperation during their phone conversation on Wednesday.
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The pair agreed to accelerate collaboration in other fields like climate change adaptation, sustainable development, education, and local-to-local cooperation.
PM Pham congratulated Canada on effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic, expressing thanks for Canada’s donation of 120,000 N95 facemasks to Viet Nam, its contribution of CAD3.5 million to ASEAN’s COVID-19 Response Fund, as well as its provision of CAD700,000 to support humanitarian efforts in central Viet Nam.
Pham suggested both sides strengthen the role of the bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as deputy foreign minister-level political consultation and defense consultation and set up a joint committee on economic and trade to raise the two-way trade value to US$8 billion within the next two years from the current US$5 billion.
Pham encouraged Canadian investors to increase investments in various fields like finance, innovation, agriculture, environment and renewable energy.
Meanwhile, PM Trudeau praised Viet Nam’s performance as the ASEAN Chair in 2020 and the UNSC non-permanent member in the 2021-2021 tenure.
Trudeau reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to maintaining strong trade, defense and development cooperation with Viet Nam and to supporting Viet Nam and other regional peers in accessing to COVID-19 vaccine sources.
The two leaders also compared notes on regional and international matters, including the East Sea issue and vowed to further enhance coordination at multilateral forums particularly the UN, APEC, ASEAN, and Francophonie./.
By Quang Minh
