President Truong Tan Sang attended the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in New York, the US on September 27 (New York time) as part of his sideline activities at the UN Summit. Addressing the event, the Vietnamese leader highlighted the country’s achievements in building laws, institutions and national strategies on gender equality. Gender equality has been mainstreamed in every national development programme and strategy, he declared. According to the President, women account for 48.4 percent of the labour force, 24 percent of NA deputies, and 25 percent of entrepreneurs in Vietnam. He affirmed the country’s strong commitments to prioritising resources to narrow the gender gap across sectors, while further improving the access of women and girls, especially those in disadvantaged areas, to healthcare service, education, and job. Vietnam will make every effort to gradually eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, he stressed, stating firmly that the country will join hands with the UN and international community in ensuring the rights to equality and advancement for women worldwide. On the same day, the Vietnamese leader took part in the annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2015, which saw the participation of over 100 State and Government leaders, 14 Nobel Prize winners and a crowd of representatives from world leading companies, charitable foundations and non-governmental organisations. On the occasion, President Truong Tan Sang met with former US President Bill Clinton, during which he commended on his contributions to normalising and promoting the Vietnam-US relations over the last 20 years. He also spoke highly of effective activities of the Clinton Foundation in Vietnam, especially in providing medical care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases, and calling for more charitable assistance from the Foundation in the coming time. For his part, Clinton pledged to push for more initiatives and projects aiding Vietnam’s future socio-economic development, disease prevention and climate change response. At the UN headquarters, President Truong Tan Sang had separate meetings with Austrian and Chilean Presidents. At the meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, the two leaders agreed to increase visit exchanges of high-level delegations and businesspeople to foster links in trade and investment. The Vietnamese leader also called on the Austrian Government to continue its official development assistance (ODA) provision for Vietnam. Heinz Fischer highly valued Vietnam’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) implementation, expressing his belief that the country will succeed in realising sustainable development goals. He stated that Austria always backs Vietnam to bolster comprehensive ties with the European Union (EU), promising that the country will urge the EU to quickly sign an EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). On the East Sea issue, the Austrian President said he supports Vietnam and ASEAN’s stance in this regard and wants to contribute positively to maintaining peace, security, and aviation and navigation safety and freedom in the sea, which is the life-line route connecting East Asia and Europe. Meeting with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, President Truong Tan Sang affirmed Vietnam always treasures ties with Chile, and thanked her for personal efforts in strengthen the relations between the two nations. The two Presidents expressed their joy at recent fruitful developments in bilateral ties, especially after the Vietnam-Chile free trade agreement took effect in 2014 that subsequently helped lift two-way trade to 890 million USD. President Truong Tan Sang said that Vietnam and Chile should improve the efficiency of current cooperation mechanisms, especially the Free Trade Council between the two Governments, the political consultancy mechanism the two foreign ministries, and set up new mechanisms towards deepened ties, especially economic links. The leaders concurred that the two countries will continue their close coordination and support at international cooperation mechanisms and multilateral forums, especially the UN, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Chile always supports Vietnam at international forums, President Bachelet stated, showing her hope that Vietnam will back her country to develop relations with other ASEAN member nations.-VNA