Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam andMalaysia have agreed to enhance economic ties, aiming to raise bilateral tradeto 15 billion USD or higher by 2020.

The consensus was reached by VietnameseDeputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Malaysian ForeignMinister Saifuddin Abdullah during their talks in Hanoi on May 16.

The two sides were resolved to worktogether in order to remove difficulties facing their businesses and createfavourable conditions for them to cooperate, especially in such potential areasas urban development, renewable energy, electronic production, electricity, andagro-forestry-fishery.

Minh spoke highly of collaboration innational defence and security between the two countries over the years, particularlyexperience sharing and exchanges between army and security forces.

They concurred to push ahead with the establishmentof mechanisms and the signing of new cooperation documents in national defenceand security, as well as law enforcement.

The officials discussed measures toenhance partnerships in other spheres, such as education-training, employment,transport, information-communications, culture-tourism, maritime affairs, andfisheries.

Saifuddin affirmed that Malaysiaattaches great importance to promoting affiliation with Vietnam across variousindustries, and that the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will partnerwith its Vietnamese counterpart to swiftly build an action programme onimplementing the strategic partnership for the upcoming period; addressobstacles to the bilateral cooperation; and create favourable conditions forVietnamese citizens to live, study, and work in the country in line with law.

The officials rejoiced at thecomprehensive and sustainable development of the bilateral friendship andcooperation in recent times.

They consented to increase all-leveldelegation exchanges via the channels of the Party, State, Government, andNational Assembly, as well as people-to-people exchange.

The two sides will maintain andeffectively implement bilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially the JointCommittee on Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation chaired by the twoforeign ministers.

Regarding regional and internationalissues of shared concern, they agreed to intensify consultations andcoordination in matters relating to regional security and strategy.

Vietnam and Malaysia agreed to joinhands with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tostrengthen the intra-bloc solidarity, successfully realise the ASEAN CommunityVision 2025, and enhance the 10-member group’s central role in the regionalarchitecture.

They agreed to further their closecooperation and coordination at other multilateral forums, especially theUnited Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) forum, and Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

At the same time, they consented to promoteregional economic connectivity through agreements to which both are members,like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP) and negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) agreement.  

Malaysia pledged to support Vietnam insuccessfully assuming the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020 and the country’s bid torun for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 term.

Meanwhile, Vietnam vowed to closelycoordinate with and back Malaysia in hosting the APEC Year 2020.

The officials reiterated theirconsistent stance on the East Sea issue and the principle of peacefullysettling conflicts in line with international law, including the 1982 UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

They also stressed the need to increasetrust and the significance of non-militarisation and exercise of self-restraintin activities that may complicate the situation and escalate tensions in theEast Sea.

The ministers reaffirmed their supportfor the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct ofParties in the East Sea (DOC) and will push ahead with negotiations to reach aneffective and practical Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

During the talks, Minh expressed hishope that the Malaysian foreign minister’s first ever visit to Vietnam willcontribute significantly to consolidating and strengthening the strategicpartnership between the two countries.–VNA