Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh (R) and Foreign Minister of New Zealand Murray McCully (Source: VNA) The officials expressed their joy at the flourishing Vietnam-New Zealand ties inrecent years, especially in defence-security, agriculture, development assistance,tourism, education and people-to-people exchange.
They said the issuance of a joint statement onstrengthening the Vietnam-New Zealand comprehensive partnership towards astrategic partnership in 2015 laida foundation for outlining and building a vision for the bilateral ties in thecoming time.
The two sides reaffirmed the importance of the relationship, expressing thehope to continue promoting political trust and deepening the Comprehensive Partnershiptowards Strategic Partnership.
The ministers agreed in principle on basic contents of the Vietnam-New Zealand ActionProgramme in 2017-2020, and assigned the two sides’ relevant agencies to competeremaining procedures for the signing of the programme, which rolls outorientations for the bilateral relations in the next four years, focusing on keyfields such as politics, defence –security, trade, development assistance andpeople-to-people exchange.
They applauded the expansion of defence-security ties, stressing that thisshows high mutual trust between the two countries. They also agreed with a plan to increasing theexchange of high-level visits and meetings in 2017.
The two sides will support each other in economic development with adetermination to lift two-way trade to 1.7 billion USD by 2020.
Minister McCully affirmed his country wants to further support Vietnam in acceleratinggrowth and development process, and realising its industrialisation and modernisationgoals through official development assistance (ODA), trade and investment.
The two countries will give priority to enhancing cooperation in agriculture, education,tourism, scientific research, environmental protection and natural resourcesmanagement.
Accordingly, NewZealand will make it easy for Vietnam to export tropical fruits to the Oceaniacountry, while continuing to provide Vietnam with technical assistance inagriculture.
During their talks, the ministers compared notes on regional and internationalof common concern, affirming to enhance cooperation at forums in the AsiaPacific region such ASEAN, East Asia Summit (EAS) the ASEANRegional Forum (ARF), APEC as well as the UN.
Minister McCully reaffirmed New Zealand will continue supporting and coordinatingwith Vietnam to help the Asian country successfully organise meetings andactivities in the APEC Year 2017.
The two sides underlined the importance of settling international disputes,including those in the East Sea, by peaceful measures, on the basis of respectfor diplomatic and legal processes, in line with international law, especiallythe 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of theSea (UNCLOS).
They also called for the full implementation of theDeclaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and the finalisation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).-VNA
VNA
