New York (VNA) – DeputyPrime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh led a Vietnamese delegationto attend the ministerial meeting of the groupof 77 developing nations (G77) on the sidelines of the ongoing 74th session of the UnitedNations General Assembly in New York, the US, on September 27.

Speakingat the event, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasised theleading role played by the G77 in promoting sustainable development and multilateralismand enhancing the role of the United Nations.

Ministers adopted a joint statement affirming the importance of South-Southcooperation and solidarity among developing countries, pledging to contribute toUN activities for the sake of social equality, international justice andsustainable development in the world.

At the event, Azerbaijan was admitted as the 135th member of the Group.

The same day, Minh had separate meetings with foreign ministers of Tunisia,Hungary, Chile, and Burundi; and the Secretary-General of the Arab Union, the ministerof the state counsellor office of Myanmar, and theminister of state at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Leaders of the nations and partners highly evaluated Vietnam's great developmentachievements, considering Vietnam's election as a non-permanent member of the UNSecurity Council for the term 2020-2021, as well as Vietnam’s ASEAN chairmanshipnext year is a manifestation of the international community’s trust in thecountry.

They expected that Vietnam would well uphold its role in both positions to makegreater contributions to maintaining peace and security in the world andregions, and promoting trade liberalisation and global governance.

Minh affirmed Vietnam's determination to perform its multilateralresponsibility well at the UN Security Council and called on countries toactively cooperate with Vietnam at multilateral forums, especially the UN andASEAN.

He also proposed measures to strengthen bilateral political relations, increasethe exchange of delegations, and expand economic-trade cooperation andpeople-to-people exchanges in the coming time.

At meetings with representatives of US enterprises, Minh updated them on Vietnam’ssocio-economic development, investment and business environment as well as itseconomic development and foreign investment attraction policies.
 
The Deputy PM notedwith pleasure Vietnam and the US have become each other's leading tradepartners, in which Vietnam has become one of the fastest growing import marketsfor US goods and services in the region.

The two sides have continued to remove obstacles incooperation, and discuss ways to build a new, stable, long-term framework foreconomic and trade relations to match with the level of bilateral cooperation,he said.

US businesses hailedefforts of the Vietnamese Government in restructuring and improving theinvestment environment; as well as joint endeavours of the two governments increating a stable economic and trade framework, thus facilitating theirbusinesses’ operations.

They have also announced their long-term plans to continue expanding investmentand production activities in Vietnam with many new projects, including those inkey strategic fields such as liquefied gas production, digital economy,telecommunications and network infrastructure.

At the meeting with representatives of the American JewishCommittee (AJC), Minh suggested the committee continue to promote its role as abridge to contribute to Vietnam-US relations, especially in the context thatthe two countries will celebrate the 25th anniversary of normalising relationshipand promote issues of concern such as overcoming war consequences.

AJC leaders affirmed that they will contribute to further deepening theVietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership.

As scheduled, Minh will make a keynote speech at thehigh-level discussion session of the UN General Assembly on September 28 andattend the Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and other relatedactivities./.