Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held talks with Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic Lubomir Zaoralek in Hanoi on October 23, looking at steps to strengthen bilateral ties in a wide range of areas. Both sides took the occasion to reiterate the importance of the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries. They agreed to facilitate high-level visits and work closely together at regional and global forums, particularly those within the United Nations and the Asia-Europe Meeting frameworks. Zaoralek confirmed his support of the signing of the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement and the EU’s recognition of Vietnam as a market economy. On bilateral trade, the Czech Republic will give all possible support for Vietnamese goods to enter its market, including farm produce, forestry, fisheries, garment and footwear. The Vietnamese side committed help to the Czech Republic to bring more of its goods and services to Vietnam, including electronics, energy, information technology and communications. Vietnam also welcomes Czech’s business investment in the fields of railway and infrastructure construction, renewable energy, agricultural machinery, electrical appliances, construction materials, food processing and telecommunications, among others. Host and guest consented to effectively continuing the Vietnam-Czech Inter-Governmental Committee on Economic Cooperation mechanism and the regular political consultation at deputy foreign ministerial level, while promoting links across national defence-security, education-training, science-technology, health care, environment, culture-sports and tourism, and transport. The host asked the Czech Republic to consider providing more official development assistance for Vietnam in the areas of environment, community health care, insurance reform, and hospital construction. He also thanked the Czech government for its assistance to the Vietnamese community living in the country.-VNA