Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu (Photo: VNA) Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu madethe statement during his virtual meeting on August 24-25 with Ambassadors and Chargésd'Affaires of African countries to Vietnam.
At the event, the largest of its kind since 2019, with the participation of 43 Ambassadorsand Chargé d'Affaires of African countries to Vietnam, Hieu informed them of Vietnam'spolicies for foreign relations and economic development after the 13th NationalParty Congress as well as its main orientations in cooperation with Africancountries and measures to promote cooperation between the two sides.
According to the Vietnamese official, despitefacing many difficulties caused by COVID-19, the relationship between Vietnamand African countries has still achieved many encouraging achievements. The twosides have well maintained their political-diplomatic cooperation throughonline meetings and phone talks at all levels. They also recorded anencouraging growth in trade in 2020 and the first half of 2021. Cooperation inagriculture, energy and telecommunications continued to see positive changes.
The Ambassadors and Chargé d'Affaires ofAfrican countries affirmed the importance of the good traditional relationshipbetween Vietnam and Africa, and expressed their wish to further promote collaborationin fields of mutual interest.
They said they are impressed by Vietnam's socio-economic developmentachievements and appreciated Vietnam's role as a non-permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term as well as its contributionsto maintaining peace and stability in Africa.
Hieu and the African diplomats applauded theactive cooperation between Vietnam and African countries at multilateralforums, especially the United Nations, hoping that the two sides would continueto support each other, as well as enhance information sharing and consultationson regional and international issues of mutual concern.
In order to further improve the cooperationefficiency, they held that it is necessary to increase the exchange ofdelegations at all levels when the pandemic is put under control. In the nearfuture, the two sides need to increase online exchanges and strengthencooperation in priority areas such as trade, investment, telecommunications,energy, agriculture, health care, education, cultural and people-to-peopleexchange.
They should pay attention to expanding collaborationto potential fields like tourism, banking, aviation and digital economy, whilepromoting ties within the South-South Cooperation framework, especially inagriculture and COVID-19 combat.
It is necessary to review and accelerate negotiations for the signing of agreementsin order to create a favourable legal framework for cooperation, they said./.
VNA
