Singapore(VNA) – National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan had a meeting withSingaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on November 27 as part of herongoing official visit to Singapore.

The top legislatorthanked PM Lee for attending and contributing to the success of the APECEconomic Leaders’ Week that Vietnam hosted earlier this month.

She spoke highly ofhis support to the progress of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a deal replacing the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP).

PM Lee showed his delightat the fruitful outcomes of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, while laudingVietnam’s efforts to overcome natural disaster to successfully organise theevent.

NA Chairwoman NguyenThi Kim Ngan told her host that her visit aims to deepen the strategicpartnership between the two countries as well as the two parliaments inparticular.

She affirmed Vietnam’sconsistent policy of treasuring the development of the strategic partnershipwith Singapore, proposing that the two sides work harder together to implementthe ties.

She suggested thatboth sides maintain high-level meetings, while strengthening people-to-peoplecontacts to prepare for the celebration of the 45th anniversary of bilateraldiplomatic relations in 2018.

She noted that two-waytrade has reached nearly 10 billion USD, and Singapore is Vietnam’s thirdlargest foreign investors with total investment over 40 billion USD, addingthat the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks have become the symbol of successfuland win-win cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile,collaboration in security, defence, education-training, tourism, labour hasalso expanded, she said.

Highlighting the closecoordination and cooperation between the two countries at regional andinternational forums, especially within the ASEAN framework, the NA leader saidthat Vietnam supports and will work with Singapore in performing the role as ASEANChair in 2018 as well as the Coordinator of the ASEAN-China relations.

Regarding the East Seaissue, Ngan stressed that Vietnam highly values Singapore’s stance, expressing herbelief that as the ASEAN Chair in 2018, Singapore will continue raising itsvoice in the issue, and accelerate the building of a Code of Conduct in theEast Sea (COC).

PM Lee said thatSingapore hopes to receive assistance of Vietnam in performing the role as the ASEANChair in 2018, adding that Singapore will do its best to deal with existing problemsof ASEAN, including the building of the COC.

Singapore will stickto roadmap of building the COC, he said, stressing the consensus among membersof the association. It is now the good time to start COC negotiations, he added.

Asserting that economiccooperation potential between the two countries is still high, PM Lee thanked Vietnamfor backing Singaporean enterprises.


He proposed that thetwo sides should open additional direct air routes to boost economic, trade andtourism affiliations and implement signed agreements.-VNA